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MEMOIRS 



A LONDON DOLL 



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EDITED BY MRS. FAIRSTAR. 



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WITH ENGRAVINGS BY BAKER. 

FROM 

DESIGNS BY BILLINGS. 



BOSTON: 
TICKNOR, REED, AND FIELDS 

MDCCCLII. 









"nURSTON, TORKV,'AND EMERSON, PRINTERS, 



CONTENTS. 



CI 



apter I. My Making 1 

II. My First Mamma 8 

III. Twelfth Night 19 

IV. The Little Milliners 28 

V. My First Frock and Trousers ... 34 

VI. The Little Lady 44 

VII. The West End of the Town .... 50 

VIII. A Narrow Escape 56 

IX. Doll's Letters 65 

X. Playing with Fire 74 

XI. The Portrait Painter 82 

XII. Punch and Judy 89 

XIII. The City 96 

XIV. The Lord Mayor's Show .... 106 
XV. The Lost Bracelet 115 

XVI. The New Grand Christmas Pantomime 124 

XVII. Conclusion 144 



Zttt $Wtm$ivu of it ZLoutou UolL 



CHAPTER L 

MY MAKING AND BIRTH. 

In a large dusky room, at the top of a 
dusky house in one of the dusky streets of 
High Holborn, there lived a poor Doll- 
maker, whose name was Sprat. He was an 
extremely small man for his age, and not 
altogether unlike a sprat in the face. He 
was always dressed in a sort of tight pina- 
fore and trousers, all in one, that fitted close 
to his body; and this dress was nearly covered 
with dabs of paint, especially white paint, 
of which he used most in his work. His 
family consisted of his wife, and three chil- 
dren — two boys and a girl. 
i 



2 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

This poor family had but one room, which 
was at the top of the house. It had no 
ceiling, but only beams and tiles. It was 
the workshop by day, and the bed-room at 
night. In the morning, as the children lay 
in bed, looking up, they could see the light 
through the chinks in the tiles ; and when 
they went to bed in the evening, they could 
often feel the wind come down, and breathe 
its cool breath under their nightcaps. Along 
the wall on one side of the room, farthest 
from the windows, the beds were laid upon 
the floor ; the largest was for the poor sprat- 
faced Doll-maker and his wife, — the next 
largest was for the two boys, — and the 
smallest, up in the corner, was for the little 
girl. There were two windows opposite ; 
and a wooden bench, like a long kitchen 
dresser, extended from one side of the room 
to the other, close to these windows. Here 
all the work was done. 

This bench was covered with all manner 
of things ; — such as little wooden legs and 
arms, and wooden heads without hair, and 



MY MAKING AND BIRTH. 



small bodies, and half legs and half arms, 
which had not yet been fitted together in 
the joints, and paint pots and painting 
brushes, and bits of paper and rags of all 
colors ; and there were tools for cutting and 
polishing, and very small hammers, and 
several old pill-boxes full of little wooden 
pegs, and corners of scouring paper, and 
small wooden boxes and trays full of little 
glass eyes, and glue pots and bits of w T ax 
and bits of leather, and a small red pipkin 
for melting wax, and another for melting 
Indian rubber, and a broken tea cup for 
varnish, and several tiny round bladders, and 
tiny tin boxes, all full of things very precious 
to Mr. Sprat in his business. 

All the family worked at Doll-making, 
and were very industrious. Mr. Sprat was 
of course the great manager and doer of 
most things, and always the finisher, but 
Mrs. Sprat was also clever in her depart- 
ment, which was entirely that of the eyes. 
She either painted the eyes, or else, for the 
superior class of dolls, fitted in the glass 



4 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

ones. She, moreover, always painted the 
eyebrows, and was so used to it, that she 
could make exactly the same sort of arch 
when it was late in the evening and nearly 
dark, before candles were lighted. The 
eldest boy painted hair ; or fitted and glned 
hair on to the heads of the best dolls. The 
second boy fitted half legs and arms together, 
by pegs at the joints. The little girl did 
nothing but paint rosy cheeks and lips, 
which she always did very nicely, though 
sometimes she made them rather too red, 
and looking as if very hot, or blushing ex- 
tremely. 

Now Mr. Sprat was very ingenious and 
clever in his business as a Doll-maker. He 
was able to make dolls of various kinds, 
even of wax, or of a sort of composition ; and 
sometimes he did make a few of such ma- 
terials ; but his usual business was to make 
jointed dolls — dolls who could move their 
legs and arms in many positions — and these 
were of course made of wood. Of this 
latter material I was manufactured. 



MY MAKING AND BIRTH. 



The first thing I recollect of myself was 
a kind of a pegging, and pushing, and scrap- 
ing, and twisting, and tapping down at both 
sides of me, above and below. These latter 
operations were the fitting on of my legs 
and arms. Then, I passed into the hands of 
the most gentle of all the Sprat family, and 
felt something delightfully warm laid upon 
my cheeks and mouth. It was the little 
girl who was painting me a pair of rosy 
cheeks and lips ; and her face, as she bent 
over me, was the first object of life that my 
eyes distinctly saw. The face was a smiling 
one, and as I looked up at it I tried to smile 
too, but I felt some hard material over the 
outside of my face, which my smile did not 
seem to be able to get through, so I do not 
think the little girl perceived it. 

But the last thing clone to me was by Mr. 
Sprat himself, whose funny white face and 
round eyes I could now see. He turned me 
about and about in his hands, examining 
and trying my legs and arms, which he 
moved backwards and forwards, and up and 



O MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

down, to my great terror, and fixed my limbs 
in various attitudes. I was so frightened ! 
I thought he would break something off me. 
However, nothing happened, and when he 
was satisfied that I was a complete doll in 
all parts, he hung me up on a line that ran 
along the room overhead, extending from 
one wall to the other, and near to the two 
beams that also extended from wall to wall. 
I hung upon the line to dry, in company 
with many other dolls, both boys and girls, 
but mostly girls. The tops of the beams 
were also covered with dolls, all of whom, 
like those on the lines, were waiting there 
till their paint or varnish had properly dried 
and hardened. I passed the time in ob- 
serving what was going on in the room 
under my line, and also the contents of the 
room, not forgetting my numerous little 
companions, who were all smiling and star- 
ing, or sleeping, round about me. 

Mr. Sprat was a Doll-maker only ; he 
never made doll's clothes. He said that was 
not work for an artist like him. So in 



MY MAKING AND BIRTH. 



about a week, when I was properly dry, and 
the varnish of my complexion thoroughly 
hardened and like enamel, Mr. Sprat took 
me down — examined me all over for the 
last time — and then, nodding his head to 
himself several times, with a face of serious- 
ness and satisfaction, as much as to say, 
' You are a doll fit in all respects for the 
most polished society,' — he handed me to 
his wife, who wrapped me up in silver paper, 
all but the head, and laying me in a basket 
among nine others, papered up in the same 
way, she carried me off to a large doll-shop 
not far from the corner of New Turnstile in 
High Holborn. 



CHAPTER II. 

MY FIRST MAMMA. 

I arrived safe at the doll-shop, and Mrs. 
Sprat took me out of the basket with her 
finger and thumb, keeping all her other 
fingers spread out, for fear of soiling my 
silver paper. 

6 Place all these dolls on the shelf in the 
back parlor,' said the master of the shop. 
c I have no room yet for them in the win- 
dow.' As I was carried to the shelf, I 
caught a glimpse of the shop-window ! 
What a bright and confused sensation it 
gave me ! Everything seemed so light and 
merry and numerous ! And then, through 
all this crowd of many shapes and colors, 
packed and piled and hanging up in the 
window, I saw the crowds of large walking 
people passing outside in the world, which 



MY FIRST MAMMA. 



was as yet perfectly unknown to me ! Oh 
how I longed to be placed in the shop- 
window! I felt I should learn things so 
fast, if I could only see them. But I was 
placed in a dark box, among a number of 
other dolls, for a long time, and when I was 
taken out I was laid upon my back upon a 
high shelf, with my rosy cheeks and blue 
eyes turned towards the ceiling. 

Yet I cannot say that the time I passed 
on this shelf was by any means lost or 
wasted. I thought of all I had seen in Mr. 
Sprat's room, and all I had heard them talk 
about, which gave me many very strange 
and serious thoughts about the people who 
lived in the world only for the purpose, as I 
supposed, of buying dolls. The conver- 
sation of Mr. Sprat with his family made me 
very naturally think this ; and in truth I 
have never since been quite able to fancy 
but that the principal business of mankind 
was that of buying and selling dolls and 
toys. What I heard the master of the shop 
in Holborn often say, helped to fix this early 
impression on my mind. 



10 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

But the means by which I learned very 
much of other things and other thoughts, was 
by hearing the master's little girl Emmy read 
aloud to her elder sister. Emmy read all 
sorts of pretty books, every word of which 
I eagerly listened to, and felt so much in- 
terested, and so delighted, and so anxious 
and curious to hear more. She read pretty 
stories of little boys and girls, and affection- 
ate mammas and aunts, and kind old nurses, 
and birds in the fields and woods, and 
flowers in the gardens and hedges ; and then 
such beautiful fairy tales ; and also pretty 
stories in verse ; all of which gave me great 
pleasure, and were indeed my earliest edu- 
cation. There was the lovely book called 
6 Birds and Flowers,' by Mary Howitt ; the 
nice stories about ' Willie,' by Mrs. Marcett ; 
the delightful little books of Mrs. Harriet 
Myrtle, — in which I did so like to hear 
about old Mr. Dove, the village carpenter, 
and little Mary, and the account of May 
Day, and the Day in the Woods, — and 
besides other books, there was oh ! such a 



MY FIRST MAMMA. 11 

story-book called ' The Good-natured Bear ! ' 
But I never heard any stories about dolls, 
and what they thought, or what happened 
to them ! This rather disappointed me. 
Living at a doll-shop, and hearing the 
daughter of the master of such a wonderful 
shop reading so often, I naturally expected 
to have heard more about dolls than any 
other creatures ! However, on the whole, I 
was very well contented, and should have 
been perfectly happy if they would only 
have hung me up in the shop window ! 
What I wanted was to be placed in the 
bright window, and to look into the as- 
tonishing street ! 

Soon after this, however, by a fortunate 
accident, I was moved to an upright position 
with my back against a doll's cradle, so 
that I could look down into the room below, 
and see what was going on there. 

How long I remained upon the shelf I do 
not know, but it seemed like years to me, 
and I learned a great deal. 

One afternoon Emmy had been reading to 



12 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

her sister as usual, but this time the story 
had been about a great Emperor in France, 
who, once upon a time, had a great many 
soldiers to play with, and whose name was 
Napoleon Bonaparte. The master himself 
listened to this, and as he walked thought- 
fully up and down from the back room to 
the shop in front, he made himself a cock'd 
hat of brown paper, and put it upon his 
head, with the corners pointing to each 
shoulder. Emmy continued to read, and 
the master continued thoughtfully walking 
up and down with his hands behind him, 
one hand holding the other. 

But presently, and when his walk had led 
him into the front shop, where I could not 
see him, the shop-bell rang and Emmy 
ceased reading. A boy had come in, and 
the following dialogue took place. 

6 If you please, sir,' said the voice of the 
boy, ' do you want a nice Twelfth-cake 1 ' 

1 Not particularly,' answered the master, 
' but I have no objection to one.' 

' What will you give for it, sir V said the 
boy. 



MY FIRST MAMMA. 



13 



' That is quite another question,' answered 
the master ; ' go about your business. I 
am extremely engaged.' 

' I do not want any money for it, sir,' said 
the boy. 

'What do you mean by that, my little 
captain ] ' said the master. 

6 Why, sir,' said the boy, ' if you please, I 
want a nice doll for my sister, and I will 
give you this large Twelfth-cake that I have 
in paper here for a good doll.' 

' Let me see the cake,' said the master. 
' So, how did you get this cake 1 ' 

'My grandfather is a pastry-cook, sir,' 
answered the boy, ' and my sister and I live 
with him. I went to-clay to take home 
seven Twelfth-cakes. But the family at one 
house had all gone away out of the country, 
and locked up the house, and forgotten to 
send for the cake ; and grandfather told me 
that I and my sister might have it.' 

' What is your name % ' 

' Thomas Plummy, sir ; and I live in 
Bishopsgate street, near the Flower Pot.' 



14 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

1 Very well, Thomas Plummy ; you may 
choose any doll you fancy out of that case.' 

Here some time elapsed ; and while the 
boy was choosing, the master continued his 
slow walk to and fro from one room to the 
other, with the brown paper cock'd hat, 
which he had forgotten to take oif, still 
upon his head. It was so very light that he 
did not feel it, and did not know it was 
there. At last the boy declared he did not 
like any of the dolls in the case, and so 
went from one case to another, always re- 
fusing those the master offered him ; and 
when he did choose one himself, the master 
said it was too expensive. Presently the 
master said he had another box full of good 
dolls in the back room, and in he came, 
looking so grave in his cock'd hat, and be- 
ginning to open a long wooden box. But 
the boy had followed him to the door, and 
peeping in suddenly, called out, ' There, 
sir ! that one ! that is the doll for my cake ! ' 
and he pointed his little brown finger up 
at me. 



MY FIRST MAMMA. 15 

' Aha ! ' said the master, ' that one is also 
too expensive ; I cannot let you have that.' 

However, he took me clown, and while the 
boy was looking at me with evident satis- 
faction, as if his mind was quite made up, 
the master got a knife and pushed the point 
of it into the side of the cake, just to see if 
it was as good inside as it seemed to be on 
the outside. During all this time he never 
once recollected that he had got on the 
brown paper cock'cl hat. 

' Now,' said the master, taking me out of 
the boy's hand, and holding me at arm's 
length, ' you must give me the cake and two 
shillings besides for this doll. This is a 
young lady of a very superior make, is this 
doll. Made by one of the first makers. 
The celebrated Sprat, the only maker, I may 
say, of these kind of jointed dolls. See ! all 
the joints move — all work in the proper 
way ; up and down, backwards and for- 
wards, any way you please. See what lovely 
blue eyes ; what rosy cheeks and lips ; and 
what a complexion on the neck, face, hands, 



16 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

and arms ! The hair is also of the most 
beautiful kind of delicate light-brown curl 
that can possibly be found. You never be- 
fore saw such a doll, nor any of your 
relations. It is something, I can tell you, 
to have such a doll in a family ; and if you 
were to buy her, she would cost you a 
matter of twelve shillings ! ' 

The boy, without a moment's hesitation, 
took the cake and held it out flat upon the 
palm of his hand, balancing it as if to show 
how heavy it was. 

' Sir,' said he, ' this is a Twelfth-cake, of 
very superior make. If the young lady who 
sits reading there was only to taste it, she 
would say so too. It was made by my 
grandfather himself, who is known to be 
one of the first makers in all Bishopsgate 
street : I may say the very first. There is 
no better in all the world. You see how 
heavy it is ; what a quantity of plums, cur- 
rants, butter, sugar, and orange and lemon- 
peel there is in it, besides brandy and 
carraway comfits. See ! what a beautiful 



MY FIRST MAMMA. 



frost-work of white sugar there is all over 
the top and sides ! See, too, what characters 
there are, and made in sugar of all colors ! 
Kings and Queens in their robes, and lions 
and dogs, and Jem Crow, and Swiss cottages 
in winter, and railway carriages, and girls 
with tambourines, and a village steeple with 
a cow looking in at the porch ; and all these 
standing or walking, or dancing upon white 
sugar, surrounded with curling twists and 
true lovers knots in pink and green citron, 
with damson cheese and black currant paste 
between. You never saw such a cake be- 
fore, sir, and I'm sure none of your family 
ever smelt any cake at all like it. It's quite 
a nosegay for the Queen Victoria herself; 
and if you were to buy it at grandfather's 
shop, you would have to pay fifteen shillings 
and more for it.' 

' Thomas Plummy ! ' said the master, look- 
ing very earnestly at the boy ; ' Thomas 
Plummy ! take the doll, and give me the 
cake. I only hope it may prove half as 
good as you say. And it is my opinion 
2 



18 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

that, if you, Thomas Plummy, should not 
happen to be sent to New South Wales to 
bake brown bread, you may some day or 
other come to be Lord Mayor of London.' 

6 Thank you, sir,' said the boy. ' How 
many Abernethy biscuits will you take for 
your cock'd hat V 

The master instantly put his hand up to 
his head, looking so confused and vexed, and 
the boy ran laughing out of the shop. At 
the door he was met by his sister, who had 
been waiting to receive me in her arms : and 
they both ran home, the little girl hugging 
me close to her bosom, and the boy laughing 
so much at the affair of the cock'd hat, that 
he could hardly speak a word all the way. 



CHAPTER III. 

TWELFTH NIGHT. 

That evening little Ellen Plummy begged 
to go to bed much earlier than usual. She 
took me with her, and I had the great hap- 
piness of passing the whole night in the 
arms of my first mamma. 

The next morning, however, was the day 
before Twelfth-day, and there were so many 
preparations to be made, and so many things 
to do in the house, that the pastry-cook 
required the help of everybody who could 
do anything at all ; so he desired Ellen to 
put me in a box till Twelfth-night was over, 
because he wanted her to sort small cakes, 
and mix sugar-plums of different colors, and 
pile up sticks of barley sugar, and arrange 
artificial flowers, and stick bits of holly with 



20 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

red berries into cakes for the upper shelves 
of his shop window. 

I was, therefore, placed in a dark box in 
the bed-room, and lay there thinking. 

After I had gone over in my mind all that 
I had at present seen and heard since I was 
a doll, I began to wonder how long this con- 
finement in the dark box would continue. 
The morning seemed so very long. But 
twice my little mamma, Ellen, came creeping 
softly up stairs, and ran and opened the box 
— took me out, gave me a kiss, put me in 
again, shut the lid of the box, and down 
stairs she softly tripped back, to continue 
her work. The afternoon was also terribly 
long, and I saw nothing of mamma till 
about six in the evening, when she came 
and took me out, and embraced me, and 
said, ' Oh you dear doll ! I shall com© to 
put you to bed ! ' and away she ran again. 

About nine o'clock mamma came and 
took me out of my box. She had contrived 
to find time in the course of the clay to 
make, in a very hasty manner, a little night- 



TWELFTH NIGHT. 21 

gown and night-cap for me, which she 
immediately put on me, and then took me to 
bed with her as before. 

Next morning was Twelfth-day, and I was 
again placed in the dark box. Ellen had 
so much to do, that all this day she was 
quite unable to come even once to take a 
peep at me. Oh how long the dark day 
w r as ! and how tired I felt of it ! However, 
I was obliged to be as patient as I could, 
and tried to amuse myself with my own 
thoughts and recollections. 

I called to mind the poor dusky room 
where I was manufactured and born, with 
its three beds upon the floor on one side, 
and the long work-bench at the other, and 
all the strange shadows of the dolls upon the 
walls by candle-light ; dozens of funny 
shadows cast from the dolls that hung upon 
the lines or stood upon the beams. And 
when the candle was moved about, these 
shadows danced. I also recollected many 
conversations that had taken place between 
the celebrated Mr. Sprat and his wife, when 



22 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

the children were asleep and the candle was 
out, as to how they should be able to afford 
an apple-pie for dinner next Sunday week, 
which was the little man's birthday. Then 
I recollected the many cold dark nights, and 
days almost as dull, which I had passed in 
the box at the doll-shop, before, by a lucky 
accident, I was moved to an upright position 
on the top of the shelf. After that I went 
over in my mind all the pretty stories and 
other books that had been read by Emmy in 
the shop. This made me happier ; yet I 
could not forget the many dark days and 
nights in the box. Nor did I consider my 
present condition better, and felt sadly im- 
patient at being thus shut up in a small box, 
and quite alone besides, without another doll 
to whisper a word to. 

I had just begun to get very sad, when 
suddenly I heard the sound of little feet 
tripping over the floor ; the lid of my box 
was opened, and I saw a beautiful fairy 
standing over me ! I was taken out by a 
pair of soft warm hands, and who should it 



TWELFTH NIGHT. 23 

be but my mamma, dressed all in white, with 
silver bracelets, and roses in her hair, and a 
bit of most beautiful violet tinsel stuck upon 
the breast of her frock ! ' Come ! ' cried 
she, clasping me in her arms, ' come down 
stairs with me, you poppet ! you shall come 
with me, Maria, and see Twelfth-night.' 

Out of the room she ran with me, and 
down stairs ! The staircase w 7 as all lighted 
with gas ! I was going to see Twelfth-night ! 
and I had that instant been christened, and 
my name was Maria Poppet ! Oh how de- 
lighted I felt ! I tried to jump out of mam- 
ma's arms, I was so pleased — but I could 
not; and this was fortunate, because perhaps 
I could not have jumped back again. But I 
felt so happy ! 

She ran straight with me into the very 
shop itself — the fine front shop with All 
the Cakes ! How shall I describe it % How 
shall I tell the effect it had upon me ? Oh, 
it is impossible. I fainted away. 

When I came to my senses I found that 
my mamma had placed me upright between 



24 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

two tall, round glass jars, one full of glitter- 
ing barley-sugar sticks twisted, and the other 
full of large sugar-plums of all colors ; and 
I was close behind the counter where she 
stood to serve. I saw nothing else distinctly, 
my eyes were so dazzled, and so indeed were 
all my senses. Amidst a blaze of gas, 
crowded with immense cakes, the round 
white sugar island of each being covered 
with its extraordinary inhabitants, there was 
the front window in all its glory ! Scenes in 
eastern countries, with elephants and drome- 
daries and great palm trees (the names of all 
which my mamma told me afterwards), and 
negro people and tigers sitting under orange 
trees ; and scenes in northern countries, 
where all is snow and frost and tall rocks of 
ice, and bears walking round broken ships ; 
and scenes in delightful countries, where the 
weather is so beautiful, and where people 
play guitars and sing all day and half the 
night, too, in groves and gardens ; and scenes 
in many parts of England, where the fields 
are so very green, and the daisies and butter- 



TWELFTH NIGHT. 25 

cups in such thousands and thousands ; and 
wonderful scenes in no country ever yet dis- 
covered, but which were all once to be seen 
in fairy-land, if anybody could find them ; 
these and many more things were all upon 
the tops of the large cakes in the lower part 
of the window, together with sprigs of holly, 
oh, so full of bright red berries ! — and here 
and there shining blanc-mange and jellies in 
the shape of baskets of fruit and flowers, 
and three round glass bowls full of gold and 
silver fish, who constantly moved round, 
staring, with their noses pushing against the 
glass, in imitation of a crowd of children 
outside the shop window, who were all star- 
ing and pushing their noses against the glass 
in just the same way. There was a shelf 
which ran across the middle of the window, 
close to the front, and this was also thick 
with cakes of a smaller sort, and all covered 
with Twelfth-night characters, in colored 
sugar ; but what they were it was impossible 
to see for the glitter of the beautiful barley- 
sugar sticks that were piled up in round 

3 



26 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

glass jars, across and across, and standing 
between the cakes. There were also cakes 
on a top shelf, near the top of the window j 
but here scarcely anything could be seen for 
the blaze of the gas. 

In the shop itself there was continually a 
crowd coming in to buy cakes or other 
things, for the counter was also covered with 
delightful wonders, and the old gentleman 
pastry-cook and great cake-maker himself 
walked about in the middle of the shop, 
dressed in his best, with a large red rose in 
the button-hole of his coat, smiling and rub- 
bing his hands . together, and chatting with 
all the children that came in, and sometimes 
going to the door and giving a handful of 
sugar-plums to children outside who had 
no money to buy anything. But behind 
the counter there were his grown-up niece, 
and the pretty girl who served in the 
shop, and his grand-daughter, who was my 
mamma ; and all of these were dressed in 
white muslin, with borders of lace and 
bright ribbons. His niece, however, was 



TWELFTH NIGHT. 27 

the most like a princess, for she had a blue 
satin turban on, with feathers hanging down 
over one side, and a silk scarf with gold 
fringe edges, and a red cornelian necklace, 
with beads as large as turnip radishes. 

I bore all this extraordinary scene as long 
as I could, until at last, out of too much 
happiness, I was unable to endure it any 
longer, and then something happened to me. 
I felt my eyes twink and twitch and wink, 
and feel a little sore ; and without knowing 
it, or knowing anything, except that I was 
in a state of the most indescribable happi- 
ness, I fell fast asleep. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE LITTLE MILLINERS. 

My life at the pastry-cook's passed in a 
very pleasant manner ; bnt not because of 
the cakes or pastry. For, in the first place, 
every night was not like Twelfth-night ; and 
as for the pastry, though I was delighted to 
see it for some time, and to notice how 
much it was admired and longed for, yet, in 
the course of a few weeks, I had seen so 
many little girls and boys make themselves 
unwell by eating too many raspberry tarts 
and cheesecakes, that I almost ceased to take 
any farther interest in those things. My 
eyes were constantly employed in observing 
the different people who came in and out, or 
passed by the door and window ; my ears 
were constantly attentive to all that was 
said ; and my mind was busily engaged in 



THE LITTLE MILLINERS. 29 

thinking over all I had seen, and all I had 
heard, both spoken and read from books, 
ever since I was a doll. By these means I 
advanced my education very much, because 
my memory became stronger by practice, 
and my understanding was improved by this 
habit of thinking over everything to myself. 
I believe no doll ever lived who was more 
anxious to learn and know about all sorts of 
things — good, pretty, or wonderful — than 
I was. 

I soon had an opportunity of seeing a 
very different set of things from the cakes, 
and tarts, and buns, and sugar-plums. We 
left our abode at the pastry-cook's. Ellen 
Plummy was sent to be a milliner to her 
aunt, who employed a great number of girls 
in making ladies' dresses. Ellen was only 
seven years old, and she cried at leaving her 
kind grandfather's ; but he kissed her, and 
told her he knew it would be best for her, 
so she dried her eyes and tried to look 
cheerful: and her brother Thomas carried 
her little grey box. She carried me herself 
in her arms. 



30 ME310IRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

Her Aunt Sharpshins was a very tall, 
thin, pale-faced woman, who was always 
dressed in a long gown made close up to 
the throat, of the color of old nankeen, with 
a faded bed-furniture pattern round the hem 
at the bottom. She had a nose like a par- 
rot's beak, and always spoke through it. 
She kept fifteen little milliner girls in the 
house, who were her apprentices, and oblig- 
ed to work as long as she pleased. The 
youngest was about ten years of age; her 
name was Nanny Bell, and she and my 
mamma Ellen became great friends directly. 

Now this tall Aunt Sharpshins, with the 
parrot's nose, made her fifteen little milliners 
all work together in the same room, all 
seated upon small chairs without backs, so 
that they could not lean backward to rest 
themselves. And she made them work the 
whole day, from six o'clock in the morning 
till eight o'clock at night, with only about 
half an hour's rest at one o'clock, when they 
were all called down stairs to dinner in the 
back parlor of the house. Some of the poor 



THE LITTLE MILLINERS. 31 

girls often cried, or fell asleep and tumbled 
off their chairs, they were so tired. If this 
misfortune happened to them, Mrs. Sharp- 
shins used to give them only bread and 
water for dinner ; and sometimes she was so 
cruel as even to give them a loud slap on 
the shoulders. 

One day my mamma Ellen and Nanny 
Bell were sitting alone together in the back 
parlor after dinner, to talk a little, as Aunt 
Sharpshins had gone out to take some 
dresses home. ' Ah,' said Ellen, 'I do so 
wish to go back to my grandfathers, he was 
such a kind pastry-cook; and my brother 
Tom w r as so very fond of me always. I am 
so sorry to be a milliner ; and although my 
aunt says I am to be her partner, perhaps, 
when I grow up, yet I do not like it.' 

4 But then,' said Nanny Bell, ' you would 
be much kinder to all of us than your aunt 
is. You w^ould not make us work so long 
every day, would you? and have so little 
rest, would you, Ellen 1 and such poor, cold 
dinners, with not enough either — now, 
would vou 1 ' 



32 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

' That I would not ! ' exclaimed Ellen, 
giving me a toss in the air with both hands, 
' that I would not ! You should only work 
as long as I worked myself; and when I 
was tired, then I should know that all of 
you must be tired, and I should say, ' Now 
let's go down stairs, and have each a large 
slice of cake.' Then, in the evening, as soon 
as it was dark, and we began to feel our 
eyes sore with looking at the work, we 
would again go down stairs, and all have 
tea together, and after that a dance ; and we 
would dance reels, and jigs, and hornpipes, 
and quadrilles, but mostly reels. — Hark ! 
Aunt Sharpshins is ringing at the door ! ' 
And away the two little girls ran scampering 
up stairs ; and in her haste and terror Ellen 
gave my head such a knock against the 
banisters ! But she was so sorry, and kissed 
me so often to make it well. 

Up to this time I had never been properly 
dressed ; for, excepting a strip of bright blue 
ribbon round my waist, and a small cap of 
purple silk stuck on the back of my head, I 



THE LITTLE MILLINERS. 33 

was in the very same long white night-gown 
which Ellen had made for me when I first 
went to the pastry-cook's honse, and in 
which I made my first appearance in the 
shop among all the gas-lights and cakes on 
Twelfth-night. So my dear mamma and 
Nanny Bell determined to make me a 
proper dress. 



CHAPTER V. 

MY FIRST FROCK AND TROUSERS. 

There were plenty of little odcls and ends 
of silks, and stuffs, and velvets, and muslins, 
which Ellen had already collected, and 
which her aunt had told her she might 
have ; and with these they knew they could 
make me a beautiful dress. They finished 
their dinner as fast as possible, and ran up 
stairs again, in order to be alone for this 
pleasant work. 

They accordingly began by carefully meas- 
uring me round the waist and round the 
shoulders ; and then across the back down 
to the waist, measuring from the right 
shoulder crossing down to the middle of the 
left side, and from the left shoulder across 
to the middle of the right side. Their little 
fingers were busy about me in all direc- 
tions : they did so tickle me ! 



MY FIRST FROCK AND TROUSERS. 35 

Then they measured my arms ; first from 
the top of the shoulder to the elbow when 
bent, and next from the tip of the elbow to 
the wrist. Lastly, they measured me from 
the back of my neck down to the middle of 
the waist, just where there is, or ought to 
be, the most bend in a doll's back ; and from 
this they measured for the skirt right down 
below my knees, and for the trousers they 
measured down as low as my ankles. 

But how were these two little girls to 
find time to do all this work for me \ The 
whole day they were engaged, from six 
o'clock in the morning till bed-time. So, 
as it was now summer, and quite light at 
five o'clock, Ellen and Nanny both deter- 
mined to get up at that time, and thus have 
an hour every morning to themselves, in 
order to make me a frock and trousers. 
And they calculated that by doing this for a 
week, they could easily finish the task they 
had set themselves. 

But the poor little girls had to work so 
hard for more than thirteen hours every day, 



36 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

that neither of them could awake in time. 
After several mornings, however, Ellen did 
manage to wake up enough to speak, and 
call Nanny; and Nanny woke up enough 
just to answer. After which clown sunk 
their cheeks upon the pillow, and they were 
fast asleep in a moment. 

The next morning Nanny Eell called 
Ellen at about half-past five o'clock, and 
Ellen made a great effort, and sat up in bed 
with her eyes shut. At last she half opened 
one eye, and then she saw poor Nanny as 
fast asleep again as if she had never called 
her. So, back fell Ellen upon her pillow. 

Now, for several nights, they both made 
great resolutions before they went to sleep ; 
but when the morning came they could not 
keep them, though they tried very much to 
do so ; and one morning Ellen, directly that 
Nanny called her, rolled herself out of bed 
upon the floor. But there she lay, and 
when the other girls were going past the 
door to their work at six o'clock, and came 
in to see if Ellen and Nanny were dressed, 



MY FIRST FROCK AND TROUSERS. 37 

there they found Ellen fast asleep upon the 
floor in her night-gown. 

Something, however, happened in con- 
sequence of this. Ellen had caught a bad 
cold and sore throat with sleeping upon the 
floor, and the doctor said she must remain in 
bed for two days to get rid of it. Ellen was, 
therefore, sent to bed again soon after din- 
ner, and as it was necessary that somebody 
should be with her to give her medicine, or 
barley water to drink, Nanny Bell was 
chosen by her own request. Here was a 
chance ! Now was the time to work at my 
frock and trousers. 

But there was something to be done first. 
There was physic to be taken. It was 
brought by Aunt Sharpshins in a tea-cup, 
and it had a dark red and yellow color, and 
oh, such a strong smell ! Poor Ellen looked 
at her aunt so pitifully, as much as to say, 
'Must I really take this nasty physic V — 
then she looked into the tea-cup, and made 
a face — then she looked round the room 
making the same face, only sadder — then 



3S MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

she gave a little frown as much as to say, 
' Why should I be afraid 1 I know it is 
good for me — I am determined to take it ! ' 
then she shut her eyes — put the tea-cup to 
her lips — and down went the physic ! 

As soon as Mrs. Sharpshins left them, 
Nanny produced some sugar-plums out of a 
little paper for Ellen to take after her 
medicine ; and as they ate the sugar-plums, 
Nanny laughed at the horrid faces my 
mamma had made before she took her 
physic and just after it was clown, and then 
they both laughed very much. 

Ellen now sat up in bed, and Nanny 
helped her to prop herself up with pillows 
at her back, and covered her shoulders with 
a large shawl. Nanny then brought all the 
bits of muslin, and silk, and stuffs, and 
velvet, together with a pair of scissors, and 
needles and thread, and spread them out 
upon the quilt before Ellen. I was placed 
on the bed beside her with my head raised 
high, so that I might see them working. 
When all was ready, Nanny got upon the 



MY FIRST FROCK AND TROUSERS. 39 

bed and sat down opposite to Ellen, and to 
work they both went. 

The measurements had already been made, 
and the slips of paper with the marks were 
laid upon the quilt. Then they began cut- 
ting out. First they cut out my under- 
clothes, and these were all of cambric 
muslin, which they said was necessary, in 
order to be soft to the skin of such a little 
creature as I was. I could not help laugh- 
ing to myself when I heard them say this, 
because I was made all of wood, and my 
skin was only the fine hard polished varnish 
of the celebrated Mr. Sprat. I was not 
quite so tender as they fancied. They next 
cut me out a small under-bodice of white 
jean instead of stays. Then came the 
trousers, which were cut long and full, and 
were of soft white • muslin trimmed with 
open work. Then they cut out a petticoat 
of fine cambric muslin, the body quite tight 
and the skirt very full all round. My frock 
was made to fit nicely to the shape, but not 
too tight. It was of fine lemon-colored 



40 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

merino, with a sash of violet-colored velvet, 
and very full in the skirt, and they said it 
must have some stiff muslin inside the hem 
to make it set out, and not hang too loosely 
in the folds. 

"When all was cut out and arranged, my 
mamma and Nanny both went to work with 
their needles, and they worked all the day 
as long as they could see. The under- 
clothes and the trousers were all quite 
finished, and the body and one sleeve of the 
frock was begun. 

The next morning, after my mamma had 
taken her medicine and made the same 
horrid face as before, only not quite so bad 
this time, they went to work again. But 
this second morning the weather was not so 
warm as the day before ; so Nanny went to 
the bed of one of the other girls and took 
off the top sheet, and tied up a bit of it 
in the middle with a long and strong tape 
in a strong knot, and then with a chair 
upon the bed she managed to tie the other 
end to a nail in the wall just over the head 



MY FIRST FROCK AND TROUSERS. 41 

of the bed ; she then spread out all the 
sheet that hung down so as to cover them 
both in, like a little tent. And in this 
pleasant manner they worked all the second 
day, by which time my frock was quite 
finished. 

Besides this they had made me a pair of 
silk stockings, which were sewed upon my 
legs to make them fit better ; and as I w T as 
naturally from my birth rather stiff in the 
ankles and instep, they made the stockings 
without feet, but sewed black satin over 
both my feet in the shape of the prettiest 
boots possible, with stitches of cross-work in 
front. When all was done, and everything 
put upon me, nothing would do but they 
must take me out for a walk round the 
room. 

Out we all got from the tent ; my 
mamma in her night-gown and shawl, with 
a bit of flannel round her throat, and list 
shoes, and I walking between the two little 
girls, each holding me by the hand. But 
we had hardly walked twice round the room, 

4 



42 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

talking like ladies who are out in the park, 
when suddenly we heard Aunt Sharpshins 
coming up stairs ! In a moment we were 
all upon the bed — down came the tent — 
underneath the bed it was thrown — into 
the bed we all three got as quick as possible 
— and when Mrs. Sharpshins came into the 
room we all seemed fast asleep ! 

She stood at the foot of the bed, looking 
at us. After a minute or two she went 
down again. 

' How you laughed and shook the bed,' 
said my mamma to Nanny. ' I thought she 
would have found us out, and somehow I 
wished she had. I don't like to have pre- 
tended to be asleep.' 

' But,' answered Nanny, ' she would have 
been so unkind if she had seen us walking 
in the park.' 

' I wish people would not be unkind,' 
sighed my mamma ; and then she added, 
' How dear and kind you are, Nanny ; and 
how you have worked for me, and nursed 
me all these two days ! ' 



MY FIRST FROCK AND TROUSERS. 43 

At this they threw their arms round each 
other's necks, and so we all three went to 
sleep in reality, quite forgetting the tent 
which had heen thrown under the bed. But 
it was a good-natured, merry girl that it 
belonged to, and she only gave my mamma 
and Nanny a good tickling when she found 
it, after a long search, at bed-time. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE LITTLE LADY. 

My mamma got quite well as soon as my 
frock and trousers were finished ; and when- 
ever she was allowed to go out with her 
aunt she took me with her. The girl whose 
sheet had been taken for the tent had made 
me a scarf of violet-colored satin, and a 
white silk bonnet, and these I always had 
on when we went out. 

In a few weeks, however, I was destined 
to lose this kind mamma, and become the 
dear doll of another. If I could have 
foreseen that this would happen I should 
have fretted very much, because I was so 
fond of Ellen Plummy. 

But it did happen, and in this manner. 

One fine summer's day Mrs. Sharpshins 
took Ellen for a walk in St. James's park, 



THE LITTLE LADY. 45 

and after a little time we came to the piece 
of water, and saw several pretty children 
feeding the swans that live in that water. 
The children had some bread and small 
buns, which they broke in little pieces and 
threw into the water, where they floated till 
the swans swam up to the bread and bent 
their long white necks down to eat it. 
Ellen begged her aunt to let her stay and 
look at the swans. ' Look, Maria ! ' said 
she to me, ' what beautiful, bright, black 
eyes they have, and what lovely snow-white 
necks, and how gracefully the breast of the 
SAvan moves upon the water, while the necks 
are in the shape of a beautiful arch ! ' 

While they were looking at the swans, a 
very tall footman, in a green and gold livery, 
with a long golden-headed cane and pow- 
dered hair, came up to Mrs. Sharpshins 
from a carriage that was waiting near at 
hand, in which sat a grown-up lady with a 
little lady by her side. Both of them had 
also been observing the swans ; but in doing 
so the little lady had at the same time fixed 
her eyes on me. 



46 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

' The Countess of Flowerdale wishes to 
speak with you,' said the footman to Mrs. 
Sharpshins. Now the countess was a great 
lady, who sometimes employed Aunt Sharp- 
shins to make her dresses for the country 
and to walk in the garden. We went with 
the footman, and I could see that Mrs. 
Sharpshins was in a great agitation. 

8 Mrs. Sharpshins,' said the countess, smil- 
ing, and with a gentle voice, ' this young 
lady has been looking at your little girl's 
doll more than at the swans, and she has 
taken a great fancy to the doll. The little 
girl is your niece, I believe. Will she part 
with her doll 1 I shall be glad to purchase 
it or send her another.' 

4 Oh, anything your ladyship wishes, of 
course,' said Mrs. Sharpshins, with a very 
low curtsey. 

' Would you like to part with your doll, 
my dear ? ' said the lady to Ellen. 

I felt Ellen give me such a close hug, as 
much as to say, ' Oh, no, no ! ' But her 
aunt stooped down and looked in her face 



THE LITTLE LADY. 47 

under her bonnet with such a look ! The 
great lady did not see it, but I saw it. 

' I could not think of taking it from your 
little niece if she is indisposed to part with 
it,' said the great lady in a sweet voice. 

Upon this the small lady by her side, who 
seemed to be about eight years of age, 
turned red in the face — the corners of her 
mouth dropped down — her eyes grew large 
and round, and out rolled one large proud 
tear. But she did not cry, or say a word. 

Whether it was this one silent tear of the 
little lady, or the sweet voice of the great 
lady, or the look that her aunt had given 
her under her bonnet, I do not know, but 
Ellen, first giving me kiss, lifted me up 
towards the carriage window, and gave me 
into the hands of the little lady with such a 
sigh ! 

' Thank you, my dear,' said the great lady, 
c I will take care to send you another hand- 
some doll and doll's cradle to-morrow morn- 
ing, and something besides ; and Mrs. 
Sharpshins, you can make me three or 



48 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

four more morning dresses the same as the 
last. I am in no hurry for them.' 

The very tall footman got up to his place 
behind the carriage — the carriage drove 
off; the great lady nodded to Ellen; the 
little lady kissed her white glove to her; 
and Mrs. Sharpshins made a low curtsey, 
taking care to step just before Ellen in order 
that they should not see the tears that were 
just beginning to gush out of her eyes. 

My new mamma, the little Lady Flora, 
was very pretty. She had a complexion 
like the most delicate wax-work, large bright 
eyes, a dimple in each cheek, and dimples 
all over her little knuckles. She had taken 
off her gloves to arrange my hair better, and 
began at once to talk to me in a very 
delightful manner. 

We drove from St. James's park into Hyde 
park, and on the way we passed a very great 
doll indeed, but looking so cross and black, 
and without any clothes on. ' Look there, 
dear ! ' said my little lady mamma, ' that is 
the strongest and largest doll ever seen in 



THE LITTLE LADY. 49 

London. His name is "Achilles," — and 
the ladies of London had him made of iron 
and brass, because the Duke of Wellington 
was so lucky in playing at ball on the fields 
of Waterloo ! ' The countess seemed much 
amused with this account. We met a great 
number of elegant carriages on our way, 
and nearly all the ladies inside exchanged 
salutations with the countess, and nodded to 
my little lady mamma. All who were ele- 
gant, and richly dressed, and beautiful, and 
in fine carriages with rich liveries, seemed to 
know each other, and all to be upon such 
delightful terms of affectionate intimacy! 
5 Oh ! ' thought I, ' here is a new world ! 
Everybody seems to respect, and admire, 
and love everybody else ! How very delight- 
ful!' 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE WEST END OF THE TOWN. 

Our house was in Hanover square, a few 
doors from the Queen's Concert Kooms. 
There happened to be a morning concert on 
the first day of my arrival, and as one of the 
drawing-room windows where I sat with my 
little lady mamma opened out upon the 
balcony, we could every now and then hear 
the trumpets and drums, and one violin 
which squeaked so sweetly high above all 
the rest. 

At four o'clock my new mamma went out 
for a drive in her carriage with her gover- 
ness, and chiefly to buy several things for 
me. Of course I went too. 

First we drove to pay a visit to a young 
lady in Grosvenor square, and after this we 
drove to a toy-shop in Oxford street, and 



THE WEST END OF THE TOWN. 51 

there the little Lady Flora bought me a 
cradle of delicate white basket-work, with a 
mattress and pillow covered with cotton of 
pale pink and lilac stripes. She wanted a 
feather-bed ; but they had not got one. 
The governess then bought a large, hand- 
some doll, chosen by Lady Flora, to send to 
my dear first mamma, Ellen Plummy, in 
exchange for me, and also a nice cradle, and 
one or two other things which I did not 
see. 

We next went down Regent street, and 
sent the very tall footman with the gold- 
headed cane and powdered hair into every 
shop that seemed likely, to ask if they had 
a doll's feather-bed. But none of them had. 
One young person, however, dressed in 
black, with a pale face, and her hair very 
nicely plaited, came out to the carriage win- 
dow and said, c They would be most happy 
to make a feather-bed for the doll, if her 
ladyship would allow them that honor!' 
My little lady mamma, however, said, ' Cer- 
tainly not — I thank vou.' 



52 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

We passed the Regent's quadrant, after 
sending into two or three shops, and then 
turned up Piccadilly, and got out at the 
Burlington arcade. But no such thing as a 
doll's feather-bed could be found. The little 
lady, however, bought me a small gold watch 
and chain, which cost a shilling. We then 
returned to the carriage, drove down Water- 
loo place, and sent into several shops to 
inquire, while we slowly drove towards the 
Duke of York's column. My lady mamma 
explained to me that the black doll on the 
top was once a great duke, who was at the 
head of all the army when he was alive, in 
the same way that he was now at the top of 
that fine column. The very tall footman 
presently returned, saying he was very sorry 
to inform Lady Flora that he had not been 
so fortunate as to discover a doll's feather- 
bed at any of the shops ; so we turned 
round and drove up Bond street, and tried 
at several shops with no better success ; then 
we passed again down Oxford street, and 
went to the Soho bazaar. 



THE WEST END OF THE TOWN. 53 

There, at the top of a long room — on the 
left-hand side — in a corner — there, at last, 
we did find a doll's feather-bed, and of a very 
superior quality. No doll in the world, 
and particularly a wooden doll, could have 
wished for anything softer. At the same 
place were also many articles of furniture, 
such as dolls of the higher class are accus- 
tomed to have, and some of these were 
bought for me. That which I was most 
pleased with was a doll's wardrobe made of 
cedar wood, with drawers for clothes in the 
middle, and pegs to hang dresses upon at 
each side, and all enclosed with folding 
doors, and smelling so sweet. All of these 
things being carefully packed up in silver 
paper, and then placed one upon the other, 
were given to the very tall footman with 
powdered hair, who receiving them with a 
serious face, and carrying them balanced on 
the palm of one hand, and holding up his 
long gold-headed cane in the other, slowly 
walked behind us, with his chin raised high 
out of his white neck-cloth, to the ad- 



54 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

miration of everybody in the bazaar, as we 
returned to our carriage. 

"We now drove once more into Regent 
street, to a pastry-cook's, and there I was 
left lying upon the seat of the carriage all 
alone, while Lady Flora and her governess 
went to have something nice. But I did 
not care much about this, as my mind was 
occupied with several thoughts. In the first 
place, the pastry-cook's window, though very 
elegant, presented nothing like the brilliant 
appearance of Mr. Plummy's shop-window 
on Twelfth-night ! No ■ — that first impres- 
sion exceeded anything else of the kind, and 
was never to be effaced. But there was one 
other thought that troubled me a little. It 
w r as this. I had been accustomed hitherto 
to think myself not only very pretty, but 
one of the very nicest and best dolls that 
could possibly be. I had always understood 
that the celebrated Mr. Sprat, who had made 
me, was one of the very first doll-makers in 
England ! The master of the doll-shop in 
Holborn, who had w r alked to and fro, like 



THE WEST END OF THE TOWN. 55 

Napoleon Bonaparte in a brown-paper 
cocked hat, had said so in my hearing ; and 
I had believed it. I naturally considered 
myself a charming doll. But I had seen 
many other dolls of quite a different make 
in the Soho bazaar ! — dolls which I could 
not help fancying were superior to any of 
those made by poor Mr. Sprat, and therefore 
very superior to myself. This thought hurt 
my vanity and humbled me. Of course I 
had been very vain and conceited. What 
else could you expect of a doll 1 But now 
I certainly felt much less vain, for I plainly 
saw that there were other dolls in the world 
who were far prettier and better made than 
myself. However, as I had been already 
beloved by two mammas, I soon became 
contented, and felt no jealousy or envy of 
the prettiness or fineness of others ; and I 
also believed that if 1 was amiable, and 
could become clever, I should never be with- 
out somebody to love me. 

My mamma and her governess now 
returned to the carriage, and we drove 
home. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A NARROW ESCAPE. 

I had a narrow escape of a most terrible 
accident a few clays after, of a kind which I 
shall never forget as long as I live. As it 
happened at the close of a day on which I 
saw several new things, I may as well give 
a short account of that day, and finish with 
my narrow escape. 

The carriage was ordered at twelve o'clock, 
and we drove to the Regent's park. I had 
on a new bonnet with a white lace veil, and 
looked very nice. After driving once round 
the circle, we got out at the Zoological 
Gardens, and went in to see the animals. 

My little lady mamma first took me to see 
the parrots, and parroquets, and macaws. 
Some of the macaws were all white ; some 
white, with an orange-colored top-knot ; 



A NARROW ESCAPE. 57 

some were green, with scarlet and blue in 
the wings and tail, and with scarlet and 
white in their faces. Then they had two or 
three very long, straight feathers in their 
tails, and they spoke to each other, and often 
scolded in a very hoarse voice. Some of the 
parrots were all green, some all grey ; but 
there was one of the parroquets — a little 
bright-eyed, quick fellow, — who was nearly 
all red, and had a funny, impudent crown of 
feathers of white and purple upon the top 
of his head, but a very short tail. Now, as 
we were looking at him, Lady Flora sud- 
denly took a fancy to touch his short tail — 
not with her own hand though, but with 
mine, which she poked through the wires of 
his cage for that purpose. ' Kark ! ' cried 
the little red, quick fellow, turning round 
very briskly and giving such a peck at my 
hand. He just missed me, because the 
governess, who was close by, instantly drew 
back my mamma's arm, and mine too, of 
course, at the same time ; the peck, however, 
fell upon the edge of the cage and made a 



58 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

mark in the wood. This was a narrow 
escape, everybody would say ; still it is not 
the terrible one I shall presently have to 
relate. 

After this, the same little quick fellow 
pretended his poll wanted scratching, and 
held down his head to have it done for him, 
with his eyes shut — one eye, though, not 
quite close, — and his head turned rather 
sideways. 'No, no!' said the governess, 
6 no, thank you, sir ; you only want to get 
another chance of a peck at our fingers ! ' 
So we went away, and then the little quick 
fellow looked up in a moment with such a 
bright eye, and cried ' Kark ! skrark ! ' 

After this my mamma took me, all trem- 
bling as I was, to see the monkeys. As she 
remembered the danger I had been in from 
the red parroquet with the impudent top- 
knot, Lady Flora did not put either of my 
hands into any of the cages, but held me up 
in front of one of them, that I might see 
the monkeys. Oh, how I wished for a voice 
to cry ' Not so close, mamma ! do not hold 
me so close ! ' 



A NARROW ESCAPE. 59. 

The monkey who was nearest to the bars 
was the quietest of them. While the others 
were running and skipping, and climbing all 
over the cage, this one sat quite still, with 
his head bent down and his eyes looking 
upon the floor ; and now and then he looked 
into the black palm of his little brown hand, 
with a very grave and earnest face, as if he 
was considering something about which he 
was very anxious : when all of a sudden he 
darted one arm through the bars of his 
cage, right at my head, and just reached my 
white veil with his little brown hand ! He 
tore it quite off from the bonnet — ran up 
the wires in front, squeaking and chattering 
— and the next moment we saw him at the 
back of the cage, high up, sitting upon a 
small shelf tearing my veil all to pieces, and 
showing us his white teeth, with round 
staring eyes, and his mouth opening and 
shutting as fast as possible. 

This also was a narrow escape, everybody 
will say ; still it is not the terrible one I 
shall almost directly have to relate. 



_60 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

We went to see the tigers and leopards, 
and while the governess was looking at a 
zebra, we went too close to be safe, and also 
too close to the bars of the elephant's en- 
closure, so that he could have reached us 
very well with his trunk ; but none of these 
chances are like the terrible escape I am 
now about to relate. I may well call it a 
terrible one, because I might have broken 
my neck or my back, or both, besides break- 
ing the head of somebody else at the same 
moment. 

We drove to the Edgeware road, and 
down Park lane to May fair, in order to pay 
a visit to a lady of high rank, the Duchess 
of Guineahen ; and then straight home. 
After Lady Flowerclale, my mamma's mam- 
ma, had dined, I heard with the greatest 
delight that her ladyship intended to take 
Lady Flora with her this evening to the 
Italian Opera. Lady Flowerdale had often 
before said that she thought my mamma 
was at present too young to go to any place 
where the hours are always so late; how- 
ever, she determined to take her. 



A NARROW ESCAPE. 61 

There was a great fuss in dressing both 
Lady Flora and myself, but at last it was 
finished, and we were all impatience to go. 
I had on a new pink silk frock, with a white 
lace scarf, and a lovely bouquet of the 
sweetest flowers was placed in my sash. 
When we got into the carriage Lady Flower- 
dale sat on one side, and my mamma and I 
on the other. We seemed all silks, and 
muslins, and sparkles, and feathers, and 
appeared quite to fill the carriage, so that 
there was not room for another doll. 

Out we got, and passed through the crowd 
and the soldiers at the door, and up stone 
steps we went, and through passages full of 
silks, and muslins, and lace, and jewels, and 
feathers, and chattering — and up more 
steps, and along more passages, till at last we 
were in a little box, and looked round into a 
great place full of little boxes, and deep 
down upon a crowd below; and all the 
place was full of light, and the same kind of 
silks, and muslins, and lace, and sparkles, 
and feathers, and chattering, as we had 



62 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

found in the passages and on the stairs, all 
of which we saw better on account of the 
dark coats of the gentlemen, who were like 
the shadows of this picture of a* house of 
fine ladies. 

Lady Flora was placed near the edge of 
the box, as this was her first visit to the 
Opera. She held me in her arms with my 
head hanging a little over the edge. Oh, 
how frightened I was, as I looked down ! 
The height was dreadful ! There were in- 
deed many rows above us, but there were 
two below us, and it looked a terrible dis- 
tance down into the crowd at the bottom. 
6 Oh,' cried I to myself, ' if my mamma 
would but hold me tighter — I am so 
frightened ! ' 

Well, the opera commenced, and it was 
very long. My little lady mamma got quite 
tired and sleepy before it was half over, and 
continually asked when the dancing would 
begin. But the opera still went on, and I 
saw with alarm that her eyes grew very 
heavy, and every now and then were shut. 



A NARROW ESCAPE. 63 

I saw in another box very near us another 
little lady of about my mamma's age, who 
had an opera glass in her hand, and was also 
leaning over the edge of the box; and I 
thought, ' Now if that small lady drops the 
opera glass upon the head of some gentle- 
man below in the pit, it will only knock a 
bit of his head off; but if my small lady 
drops me, I shall be knocked all to 
pieces ! ' 

I had scarcely finished this reflection 
when, to my indescribable alarm, I felt the 
hand that held me get looser and looser. 
Lady Flora was fast asleep ! 

What feelings, what thoughts, were mine 
at that moment, I cannot say, for everything 
within me seemed mingled in confusion with 
everything that was round me, and I did not 
know one thing from another. The hand 
that held me got still looser ! 

Oh dear me ! — how shall I proceed % It 
was a moment, as the poet Henry Choi'ley 
observes — 

' When all that's feeble squeaks within the soul ! ' 



64 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

The next moment I felt all was over with 
me ! The hand of my sleeping mamma 
opened — and down, down I fell into the 
dark pit below ! 

As my head was of solid wood and heavy, 
I fell head foremost ; but, most fortunate to 
relate, the gentleman who was just under- 
neath was holding up his hat, which was a 
new one, in order to prevent it being crushed 
by the crowd, and I fell straight into it, — 
with such a thump, however, that I half 
knocked out the crown, and my head poked 
through a great crack on one side. 

I was brought up to the box again by 
somebody — I had not sufficiently recovered 
to know anything more, except that my 
little lady mamma was still asleep, and now 
lay upon a small sofa at the back of the box, 
covered over with a large French shawl. 
This, I think I may say, is having had a 
narrow escape ! 



CHAPTER IX. 

DOLL'S LETTERS. 

I had the next day a great joy. It was 
the arrival of a letter from my dear Ellen 
Plummy, which her brother Thomas had 
brought and given to one of the housemaids, 
saying it was a ' Doll's letter.' The house- 
maid had given it to a page, and the page 
had given it to the tall footman, and he — 
after some consideration — had taken it to 
the governess, who, having opened it, and 
read it, and shown it to Lady Flowerdale, 
had asked my little lady mamma if she 
would allow me to receive a letter, as one 
had been sent for me by the little girl from 
whom she had received me. Lady Flora 
was at first going to say ' No,' but suddenly 
she recollected the sad face of poor Ellen 
when she placed me in her hands, and then 

6 



66 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

she said c Oh yes ! — I should so like to read 
it.' This was the letter. It was addressed 
on the outside to ' Maria Poppet.' 

8 My dearest Maria, 
'I have never forgotten you, though I 
have got another doll; and often when I 
love this other doll, I am thinking of it as if 
you were this. I have also had a cradle 
sent me by the kind great lady and little 
lady both, and some things for the bedding, 
and a necklace of beads for myself, besides a 
small painted work-box. We get up at six 
o'clock to work as usual, and go to bed at 
nine, after bread and butter. I am so glad 
to think you are happy and comfortable, and 
that you have no hard needlework to do, 
and the little lady is* fond of you. Don't 
you remember the Twelfth-cake my brother 
Tommy gave for you, and how he laughed 
all the way we ran home at something that 
had happened in the doll-shop about Bona- 
parte and Abernethy biscuits] I often think 
of you. I never forget you, nor all who 



doll's letters. 67 

have been good to me, and whom I love, and 
I hope we may some day meet again ; and I 
also hope that your happy life among all the 
riches of the world will not make you quite 
forget your poor first mamma. 
' Your affectionate 

' Ellen Plummy.' 

The little Lady Flora and the governess 
were rather amused with this letter of my 
poor dear Ellen's, but Lady Flowerdale was 
very much pleased with it, and said that, 
however simple or foolish it might seem, it 
showed a good and affectionate nature in 
the little girl who had sent it ; and she was 
of opinion that the doll should write an 
answer. 

This idea of my writing an answer greatly 
delighted Lady Flora, and she and her 
governess sat a whole morning thinking 
what to say, and writing upon a slate, and 
then rubbing it out because it would not do. 
At the same time the governess was obliged 
to put a pen very often into my hand, and 



68 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

teach me to write, and she often seemed so 
vexed and tired; bnt Lady Flora would 
never let her rest, so that I really had in 
this manner an excellent lesson in writing. 

At last a letter, in answer, was composed 
on a slate by the governess, with Lady 
Flora's assistance, and then a pen was put 
into my hand by the governess, so that I 
wrote the letter. It was then sent to Lady 
Flowerdale, to know if she approved of it ; 
but she did not : she said it wanted ease and 
simplicity, and was not what a nursery letter 
ought to be, nor like what a doll would say. 
She then tried herself, but she could not 
write one to her mind. 

That same evening, as she sat at dinner 
with the earl her husband, they happened to 
be alone. Lady Flora was gone to bed, but 
had left me sitting upright in one corner of 
the room, having forgotten to take me up 
stairs with her. Her ladyship, observing 
that Lord Flowerdale, who was a cabinet 
minister, was troubled with state business, 
sought to relieve his mind by telling him all 



69 



about this letter to me, and their difficulty 
in answering it. The minister at first paid 
no attention to this triviality, but when her 
ladyship related how the governess and Lady 
Flora had tried all the morning to write a 
proper answer for the doll, and how hard 
she herself had tried, but could not, the 
minister was amused, and in the end quite 
laughed, forgot the business of the state, and 
actually became pleasant. He desired to 
see the letter. It was brought in by a foot- 
man, — placed upon a splendid silver salver, 
and handed to the minister by the butler 
with a grave and important face. 

The minister read the letter very atten- 
tively ; then smiled, and laid it by the side 
of his plate, on which was a slice of currant 
tart. ' So,' said he, ' Flora and her gover- 
ness have tried in vain to write a proper 
reply to this letter from the doll ; and your 
ladyship has also tried in vain. Well, I 
have a mind to write the reply myself; I 
need not go down to the house (meaning, as 
I afterwards learnt, the House of Lords) for 



70 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

ten minutes, and if I do not eat this currant 
tart, but write instead, I can very well spare 
that time. Bring me my writing-desk.' 

The desk was brought, and placed on a 
side table. His lordship sat down, and 
opening Ellen Plummy' s letter, began to 
write a reply for me. 

He sat with his forehead full of lines, 
frowning and screwing up his mouth, and 
working very hard at it, and only writing a 
few words at a time, after studying Ellen's 
letter, which lay open before him. 

Three times a servant came to announce to 
his lordship that his carriage was at the door ; 
but he had not finished. At last, however, 
it was clone, and he was about to read it, 
when, hearing the clock strike, he found he 
had been three quarters of an hour over it, 
and, jumping up, hurried out of the room, 
and I heard the carriage drive off at a great 
rate. 

Lady Flowerdale, with a face of smiling 
curiosity, told one of the footmen to bring 
her what his lordship had been writing. 



doll's letters. 71 

She cast her eyes over it, laid it down, and 
then calmly desired all the servants to leave 
the room. As soon as they were gone she 
took it up again hastily, and read it aloud, 
as if to enjoy it more fully. It was as 
follows : — 

' To Miss E. Plummy. 

1 Hanover Square, July 15. 

' My dear Madam, — I have the honor to 
acknowledge the receipt of your very kind 
letter, the date of which has been omitted, 
no doubt by an oversight. You have stated 
that I still hold a place in your memory, 
although you have now got another doll, and 
that your affection for this latter one is only 
by reason of your thoughts dwelling upon 
me. You have also stated that you possess 
various little articles ; and I, moreover, no- 
tice sundry allusions to needlework and 
Twelfth-cake, to your brother Master Thomas, 
and to Bonaparte and Mr. Abernethy; the 
purport of which is not necessary for me to 
discuss. But I must frankly tell you that, 



72 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

having now become the doll of another, I 
cannot with propriety reciprocate that solici- 
tude which you are pleased to entertain for 
me, nor can I, for the same reason, address 
you in similar terms of affection. At the 
same time, my dear madam, permit me to 
add that I cherish a lively sense of all the 
kindness you once showed me, and I cannot 
doubt of the sincerity of your present pro- 
fessions of respect and esteem. 

' I have the honor to be, my dear Madam, 
very faithfully yours, M. P.' 

When the countess had concluded this 
letter she hastily put a cambric handkerchief 
up to her face, and particularly over her 
mouth, and laughed to herself for at least a 
minute. I also laughed to myself. What 
a polite, unfeeling, stupid reply to a kind, 
tender-hearted little girl like Ellen Plummy. 
Whatever knowledge the minister might 
have had of grown-up men and women, and 
the world, and the affairs of state, it was 
certain he was not equal to enter into the 



doll's letters. 73 

mind of a doll who had a heart like mine. 
It would have been so much better if his 
lordship, instead of writing that letter, had 
eaten his currant tart, ■ — and then gone to 
bed. 



CHAPTER X. 

PLAYING WITH FIRE. 

I have now something more than a nar- 
row escape to relate ; for though I did really 
escape, yet it was not without a dreadful 
accident, and some injury. It was also the 
occasion of my changing my place of resi- 
dence and style of living. All, however, 
shall be told in proper order. 

Lady Flora having learnt my name from 
the address of the letter I had received, she 
took a sudden fancy to have it engraved 
upon a little gold bracelet. When the 
bracelet was sent home she fastened it upon 
my wrist, but it dropped off once or twice, 
being rather too large, so we drove to the 
jeweller's house, which was near Charing 
cross, and there it was fastened to my wrist 
by rivets, so that it could not be taken off 



PLAYING WITH FIRE. / 5 

at all. This was what Lady Flora de- 
sired. 

On returning through the Haymarket my 
mamma recollected, as we passed the Opera 
House, that she had still never seen the danc- 
ing there, on account of her sleeping ; and at 
the same time I, for my part, only recol- 
lected my narrow escape. But the loss of 
the opera dancing made Lady Flora only 
think the more about it, and about dancing ; 
and when we arrived at home she ran to her 
mamma, and begged to be taken to Willis's 
Kooms — in fact, she wanted to dance her- 
self at 'Almack's,' and to take me with her, 
as no doubt there would be many other 
dolls in the room, with whom, after mutual 
and satisfactory introductions, I could asso- 
ciate, 

Lady Flowerdale said she was afraid that 
Lady Flora, being not yet nine years of age, 
was too young to be taken to ' Almack's ; ' 
she could, however, take her to the Duchess 
of Guineahen's ball, which was to be given 
next month. This greatly pleased Flora, 



76 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

and meantime she resolved to take an extra 
lesson in dancing of Madame Michaud, in 
order to be the better prepared for the ball. 

I was present at all the lessons of dancing, 
and saw Madame Michaud seated with her 
gold snuff-box, tapping upon the lid to keep 
time, and taking an immense pinch of snuff 
when Lady Flora danced well, and a still 
more immense pinch when she danced badly, 
besides scolding the young man who played 
the violin, as if it had been his fault. 

Another thing, however, and a still more 
important one, was to be done, before this 
ball occurred, and this was to get ready the 
ball dresses. A message was immediately 
sent to a celebrated milliner in Piccadilly, to 
come immediately and take orders for ball 
dresses, for Lady Flora and her doll. 

During all the time these dresses were 
being made, my mamma was so impatient 
and restless that it was quite an unhappi- 
ness to see her. I often thought what a 
pity it was she had not learned to make 
dresses herself, her mind would then have 



PLAYING WITH FIRE. 77 

been employed, and she would have been so 
much more comfortable. Oh, how different 
was the happy day I spent among the poor 
little milliners when Ellen Plummy and 
Nanny Bell sat under the tent made of a 
sheet, to make me a frock and trousers. 
How happy were they over the work, and 
how impatient and cross was Lady Flora, 
who had no work to do. Her mind was so 
disturbed that she was quite unable to 
attend to any of her lessons; she insisted, 
however, upon her governess giving me 
lessons instead, by placing the pen in my 
hand, and directing it till I had copied 
several pages of a book. By this means I 
learned to write, — the governess was em- 
ployed, — and my mamma said it was the 
same as if she took her usual lessons. 

At last the dresses came home. They 
were beautiful, and both exactly alike. They 
were made of the thinnest white gauze, to 
be worn over very full petticoats of the same 
white gauze ; so that they set out very 
much, and looked very soft and fleecy. They 



78 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

were trimmed with an imitation of lily of 
the valley, made in white satin and silver. 
The trousers were of white satin, trimmed 
with gauze. 

Now there was such a trying on and 
changing, and proposals for alterations, and 
sending all back to the milliner's, and having 
all back again two hours afterwards, to try 
on once more in case they really did not 
need alteration. 

The day of the ball was rather cold and 
windy ; so that, although it was the month 
of August, a fire was ordered in the nursery, 
and in Lady Flora's bed-room, lest she might 
take cold. Towards evening the dresses 
were all laid out ready to put on ; but when 
my mamma saw them, she could not wait, 
and insisted upon being dressed, although it 
was five hours before the time. In two 
hours and a half she was ready ; and then I 
was dressed, which occupied an hour more. 
Still there was a long time to wait ; so Lady 
Flora took me in her arms, and began to 
dance from room to room, — that is, from 



PLAYING WITH FIRE. 79 

the nursery to her bed-room, from one fire- 
place to the other. In doing this she 
observed that each time she turned, her full, 
gauze frock gave the fire a puff, so that a 
blaze came; and as she was amused by it, 
she went each time nearer, and whisked 
round quicker in order to make the blaze 
greater. ' Oh, Lady Flora ! ' cried her maid, 
' pray take care of your dress ; you go too 
near; wait till I run and fetch the fire-guards.' 

Away ran the maid to fetch the fire- 
guards ; and while she was gone Lady Flora 
determined to dance for the last time still 
nearer than ever to each fire before she 
whisked round. The very next time she did 
it she went just the least bit too near; the 
hem of her frock whisked against the bars — 
and her frock was in a blaze in a moment ! 

She gave a loud scream and a jump, and 
was going to run, when most fortunately 
her foot caught one corner of a thick rug, 
and down she fell. This smothered the 
blaze, but still her clothes were on fire ; and 
she lay shrieking and rolling and writhing 
on the floor. 



80 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

Up ran the nursery maid, and when she 
saw what had happened, she began scream- 
ing too — and up ran the page, and when 
he saw what had happened he fell down 
upon his face with fear and confusion — and 
up ran the very tall footman, and the instant 
he looked into the room, and smelt the fire, 
he ran away again as fast as possible — and 
then up ran the countess herself, and she 
ran straight to her child, and rolled the 
thick rug all round her, and carried her in 
her arms to her own room. 

Physicians and surgeons were sent for, 
and all the burnt things were taken off, and 
thrown on one side. Among these I lay; 
my beautiful dress was all black tinder ; but 
I was not really much burnt, nor was Lady 
Flora. A few weeks might cure her, though 
the scars would always remain, and spoil 
her prettiness; but what could cure me? 
I was so scorched and frizzled, that the 
paint which was on my skin had blistered 
and peeled off. I was quite black. No 
notice was taken of me ; and in the confusion 



.•.,:& 




PLAYING WITH FIRE. 81 

I was carried out of the room, with the rest 
of the burnt rags, and thrown by one of the 
servants, in her haste, out of a back win- 
dow. 

How I escaped utter destruction, in this 
dreadful fall, I cannot think ; unless it was 
owing to my being wrapped all round in 
singed clothes, so that I fell softly. I had 
nearly fainted with fear, when the flames 
first caught my dress ; and when the house- 
maid threw open the window to fling me out, 
my senses utterly forsook me. 

I fell over a low wall, into a passage 
leading towards some stables. In the course 
of a few minutes I recovered my senses, but 
only to experience a fresh alarm ! A fine 
large Newfoundland dog, who was just pass- 
ing, thought somebody had thrown him a 
broiled bone; so he caught me up in his 
mouth, and away he ran with me, wagging 
his tail. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE PORTRAIT PAINTER. 

The Newfoundland dog soon found that 
the smell of my burnt clothes and scorched 
skin was not the same as a broiled bone; 
and that, in fact, I was not good to eat. 
But he still continued to hold me in his 
great warm, red mouth, because he was used 
to fetch and carry ; and, as he felt no wish 
to taste me, he thought he would take me, 
just as I was, to his young mistress, who 
was not far off. He had merely wandered 
about Hanover square to amuse himself, as 
he knew the neighbourhood very well. 

The dog ran through the door-way of 
some private stables into a passage that led 
into the square ; and turning down, first one 
street, then another, he soon stopped at a 



THE PORTRAIT PAINTER. 83 

door, upon which was written, ' J. C. John- 
son, Portrait Painter.' 

The door was shut, but the area gate 
happened to he open ; so down ran the dog 
into the area, and into the front kitchen, 
and across that to the stairs, and up the 
stairs (three flights) till he came to the front 
room of the second floor, which was a-jar, 
and in he bounced. There sat a little girl 
and her aunt ; and Mr. J. C. Johnson was 
painting the aunt's portrait, in a great white 
turban. 

The dog ran at once to the little girl, and 
laying me at her feet, sprang back a step or 
two, and began wagging and swishing his 
tail about, and hanging out a long crimson 
tongue, and breathing very fast, and waiting 
to be praised and patted, and called a good 
dog, for what he had brought. 

' Oh, Nep ! ' cried the aunt to the dog, 
c what horrid thing have you brought % some 
dirty old bone.' 

6 It is an Indian idol, I believe,' said Mr. 
Johnson, taking me up from the carpet ; ' an 



84 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

Indian image of ebony, much defaced by 
time.' 

' I think,' said the little girl, to whom Mr. 
Johnson handed me, ' I think it looks very 
like a wooden doll, with a burnt frock and 
scorched face.' 

'Well, so it is, I do believe,' said the 
aunt. 

6 Let me examine the figure once more,' 
said the portrait-painter, laying down his 
palette of colors, but keeping his brush in 
the other hand. ' Yes, yes, I fancy, madam, 
your niece is correct. It is not a work of 
Indian art, nor of Egyptian, nor of Grecian 
art ; it is the work of a London doll-maker.' 

I expected he was, of course, about to 
say, c by the celebrated Mr. Sprat,' but he 
did not. 

' Oh, you poor London doll ! ' said the lit- 
tle girl, ' what a pity you were not made in 
India, or somewhere a wonderful way off, 
then Mr. Johnson would have taken pity on 
you, and painted you all over.' 

Mr. Johnson laughed at this ; and then 



THE PORTRAIT PAINTER. 85 

gave such a droll look at the little girl, and 
such a good-natured look at me. 'Well,' 
said he to her, ' well, my little dear, leave 
this black doll with me ; and when you 
come again with your aunt, you shall see 
what I have done.' 

The aunt thanked Mr. Johnson for his 
pleasant promise, while she was taking off 
her turban to depart ; and away they went, 
the Newfoundland dog, Nep., leaping down 
stairs before them, to show them the way. 
They were from Buckinghamshire, and had 
lodgings only a few streets distant. The 
aunt was Mrs. Brown, her niece was Mary 
Hope. Mary Hope's father was a clerk in 
the Bank ; but she chiefly lived with her 
aunt in the country, as her father had seven 
other daughters, and a small salary. 

As soon as they were gone, Mr. Johnson 
told his son to tear off all my burnt clothes, 
scrape me all over with the back of a knife, 
and then wash me well with soap and water. 
When this was done, the good-natured artist 
painted me all over from head to foot. 



86 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

When I was dry, he again painted me all 
over with a warmer color, like flesh ; and 
when that also was dry, he painted my 
cheeks, and lips, and eyebrows ; and finally 
he gave me a complete skin of the most deli- 
cate varnish. My beautiful hair was en- 
tirely burned off; and Mr. Johnson said this 
was a sad pity, as he did not know how to 
supply it. But his son told him there was 
a doll's wig-shop very near the Temple, 
where a new head of hair could be got. So 
the kind Mr. Johnson took the measure of 
my head ; and when he went out for his 
evening walk, he went to the shop and 
bought me a most lovely dark auburn wig, 
with long ringlets, and his son glued it on. 
When all was done, they hung me up in a 
safe place to dry. 

The hanging up to dry immediately re- 
minded me of my infancy in the shop of Mr. 
Sprat, when I first dangled from the beam 
and looked round upon all my fellow- 
creature dolls, w r ho were dangling and star- 
ing and smiling on all sides. The recollec- 



THE PORTRAIT PAINTER. 87 

tion was, on the whole, pleasing. I seemed 
to have lived a long time since that day. 
How much I had to recollect ! There was 
the doll-shop in Holborn — and little Emmy, 
who used to read little books in the back- 
room — the Marcet books, the Harriet Myr- 
tle books, the Mary Howitt books, and the 
delightful story of ' The Good-natured Bear, 

— in short, all the different stories and his- 
tories, and voyages, and travels, and fairy- 
tales she had read — and there was the mas- 
ter of the shop in his brown paper cock'd hat 

— and Thomas Plummy and the cake — 
and Ellen Plummy, and Twelfth-night in the 
pastry-cook's shop — and the different scenes 
that I had witnessed among the little mil- 
liners ; and the making of my first frock 
and trousers under the tent, upon Ellen 
Plummy's bed ; and my life in Hanover 
square, during which I saw so many great 
places in great London, and had been taught 
by Lady Flora's governess to write, and had 
fallen headlong from a box at the Opera, 
into a gentleman's hat ; and where, after 



88 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

having beautiful ball-dresses made, my little 
lady mamma and I had both caught fire; 
and, lastly, there was my tumble over the 
wall into the passage, where the Newfound- 
land dog had fancied I was a broiled bone, 
and caught me up in his mouth. Here 
was a biography to recollect ; while, for the 
second time in my life, I was hanging up 
for my paint and varnish to dry. 



CHAPTER XII. 

PUNCH AND JUDY. 

When Mary Hope and her aunt came 
again to the portrait-painters house, he 
presented me to her with a smiling look. 
4 There, Miss Mary,' said he, ' you see I have 
been at work upon this child of yours, and 
I think with good effect. And now that the 
countenance can be seen, we should observe 
that this doll has really very good features. 
I mean that they are more marked than is 
common with dolls. She has a good nose ; 
very bright eyes ; and what is very uncom- 
mon to see in a doll — she has something 
like a chin. She has, also, a very pretty 
mouth, and a sensible forehead. But an- 
other remarkable discovery I have made is 
that of her name ! This bracelet which I 
have cleaned and brightened, I find to be 



90 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

gold, and upon it is engraved c Maria Pop- 
pet!' 

Mary Hope received me with great pleas- 
ure, and gave Mr. Johnson many, many 
thanks for his kindness in taking so much 
pains about me. ' But what dress,' said he, 
1 is this you have given her 1 is it not too 
warm V 'I fear it is,' said Mr. Johnson, 
laughing. ' It is only a bit of green-baize 
for a wrapper, and an old silver cord for a 
girdle, which I happened to have at hand, 
and thought this was better than nothing. 
You can make her a nice new summer dress 
when you get home.' Mary declared she 
would do so that very day. 

The sitting for Aunt Brown's portrait 
being concluded, she went down stairs with 
Mary ; who carried me, tossing me up in the 
air for joy, and catching me as I was falling. 
This frightened me very much, and I was so 
glad when we got down stairs. Upon the 
mat we found the great dog Nep. asleep. 
He jumped up in a moment, and went 
bouncing out before us into the street. A 



PUNCH AND JUDY. 91 

hackney coach was waiting at the door, and 
directly the steps were let down, Nep. jump- 
ed in first. We arrived at their lodgings, 
which were very comfortable and very quiet. 
I much enjoyed the quiet, after all the 
alarms, and dangers, and narrow escapes, 
and troubles, I had recently gone through. 
The weather was very rainy, nearly the 
whole week, so that I was never taken out 
during that time ; but the days passed very 
pleasantly, as I often heard Mary read pretty 
books aloud to her aunt. She also busied 
herself in making me new clothes, for indeed 
I wanted everything, as at this time my only 
dress was the green-baize robe, with the bit 
of old silver cord round the waist, which 
Mr. Johnson had given me. 

One fine clay, after the bad weather was 
over, a hackney coach was at the door 
waiting to take us out somewhere. Down 
we went, Neptune, as usual, running down 
stairs before us with his red tongue out, and 
leaping in first. ' Now Mary,' said her aunt, 
as we drove along, ' shall we go to the 



92 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

Exhibition of Pictures at the Royal Academy 
in Trafalgar square ] (Neptune, do not poke 
your great nose so upon my knees — ) or 
shall we go to the Diorama in the Regent's 
park % (Neptune, your paws are not clean — 
you will soil my silk gown — ) or shall we 
go to the Panorama in Leicester square? 
(Neptune, your nose is so cold — ) or shall 
we go to the British Museum \ ' 

' Oh dear aunt,' said Mary, ' I do not 
know which is best. I should like to go to 
them all ! (Nep., you must not lick the 
doll's face — the fresh paint may come 
off!)' 

' But you cannot see all in the same day,' 
said her aunt. 

' No, aunt,' replied Mary, ' I know that 
— only I could not help saying what I 
should like. Let us go first, then, to the 
British Museum. But will they let me take 
Maria Poppet in with me % ' 

8 1 should think they would hardly object,' 
said her aunt, ' for I never yet saw a doll 
left among the walking sticks and umbrellas 



PUNCH AND JUDY. 93 

at the door, however plain the doll might 
be. They could never object to a pretty 
doll like Maria — though, to be sure, she 
might be better dressed. Really, you must 
make haste with her clothes. I cannot let 
you take her out any more in that strange 
dress Mr. Johnson tied round her.' 

Mary promised to finish my clothes in a 
day or two. At this moment the coach 
stopped, in consequence of a crowd that was 
assembled in the street round a performance 
of Punch and Judy. 

Mary's aunt put down the glass at one 
side in order to see what occasioned the 
stoppage ; and as it was quite impossible for 
the coach to go on immediately, both Mary 
and her aunt sat looking out of the window 
at the acting of Mr. Punch. He was be- 
having in his usual naughty and impudent 
way, and was now pretending to nurse his 
child. This child was a wooden doll, dressed 
in an old green sort of a night-gown, not 
unlike the color of my own green wrapper. 
Presently the child was heard to cry very 



94 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

loudly; so Mr. Punch declared he would 
have nothing to do with such a cross child, 
and would throw it out of the window. The 
child cried again; and Punch actually did 
what he had threatened, and tossed the 
wooden doll out upon the heads of the crowd 
who were gathered around, and it fell some- 
where among them. This produced such 
scrambling and confusion, and laughing and 
noise, that it made Neptune jump up in our 
coach and thrust his head out of the coach 
window to see what was the matter. When 
the people saw this they laughed louder 
than before, and made more noise, so that 
Nep., thinking they meant to be rude to us, 
began to bark and throw himself about 
from one side to the other ; in doing which 
he accidentally ran his head against Mary's 
shoulder, with such a jerk that he knocked 
me out of her arms, and I fell down among 
the crowd ! 

' Oh, Nep., Nep.,' cried Mary, ' what have 
you done 1 ' 

In a moment out of the window jumped 



PUNCH AND JUDY. 95 

Neptune, and began to scramble through 
the crowd in search of me, barking away as 
loud as he could. The disturbance and con- 
fusion increased ; but who shall describe 
my dismay when I saw Nep., in his haste, 
seize upon the child of Mr. Punch and carry 
it back in his mouth to the coach instead of 
me ; while at the same moment a tall man, 
picking me up, handed me into Punch's 
show, saying, 'Here, take your child, Mr. 
Punch ! ' 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE CITY. 

How long it was before the performance 
concluded I do not know, as I was in so 
distressed and confused a state of mind. All 
I can remember is that I was thrown head- 
long into a small box, among a number of 
dirty old wooden dolls dressed in rags and 
bits of cloth of all colors. Here I lay a 
few minutes, till a shrill, squeaking voice, 
that came through somebody's nose, cried 
out ' Hurray ! ' and then down tumbled Mr. 
Punch himself into the box, right across me, 
and the lid of the box was instantly shut 
down, and there we all lay squeezed together 
in the dark. 

I soon began to feel w T retcheclly uncom- 
fortable — it was so close and hot, and I also 
had a very bad head-ache, owing to some- 



THE CITY. 97 

thing that pressed hard upon my head. 
When the box was next opened I found it 
was Mr. Punch's high-crowned wooden hat 
that had hurt me, in consequence of one of 
its hard corners pressing against the back of 
my head. 

The master of the show now began to take 
some of us out for a mornings perform- 
ance, and to arrange the dolls upon a board 
in the order in which he should want them 
to make their appearance. ' Now, ' said he, 
4 1 want the infant' (meaning Punch's child), 
k I want the infant — where is Punch's 
young one ? ' Then taking me up — ' Ah ! 
what is this % ' said he, ' how did this crea- 
ture come here % Why somehow, she has got 
here in the place of the infant. She must 
have popped in by mistake, during the noise 
in the street with that great barking dog. 
Well, she's too big for me, and she's much 
too good to throw away, so I had better sell 
her.' • 

He had scarcely uttered these words 
when the sound of ' Clo' ! clo' ! clo' ! ' met 



98 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

our ears, and the master of the show im- 
mediately issued from underneath his cur- 
tains, with me in his hand, and beckoned 
the Jew clothesman to come to him. Ke 
proposed to sell me ; and, after half an 
hour's bargaining, during which so many 
words were exchanged that my patience was 
quite worn out, and I did not care what be- 
came of me, the Jew carried me away in his 
bag. I felt myself quite as disagreeably 
situated as when squeezed among the family 
of Mr. Punch, for my companions in the 
bag appeared to be two old waistcoats, with 
hard metal buttons pressing against my 
left cheek, an old hat, three pairs of old 
shoes, seven pairs of slippers, a humming- 
top, a teetotum, a snuffer-tray, a coat that 
seemed greasy, a tin pot, some old gold lace, 
a bundle of rags, seven bones, two rabbit 
skins, a stuffed parrot, the head of a rocking 
horse, a tin box and canister, a cow's horn, 
a pound of yellow soap, a woollen nightcap, 
five pairs of worsted stockings, a parcel of 
tobacco, and half a roast goose. I was 



THE CITY. 99 

sadly afraid that the brass buttons, and the 
edges of the tin box and canister, the snuffer- 
tray, or the head of the rocking horse, or the 
beak of the stuffed parrot, would destroy 
the beautiful complexion Mr. Johnson had 
given me, when fortunately the very same 
idea occurred to the cautious mind of the 
wise old Jew, who suddenly put his hand 
into the bag, and, thrusting my head and 
shoulders into a worsted stocking, he rolled 
the rest of me tightly in the coat, and then 
crammed me into the old hat, with my legs 
upwards. One of my hands, however, hap- 
pened accidentally to be left free ; and in 
cramming me into the hat, which fitted very 
tight, this hand went through a split in the 
edge of the crown. I should not have 
thought much of this circumstance, but that 
I presently discovered the hat to have a 
strong scent of otto of rose, and then I sud- 
denly recollected that this must be the very 
hat into which I had fallen at the Opera. 
My first acquaintance with the hat having 
been in the most fashionable place in Lon- 



100 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

don, this was a strange place of meeting for 
both of us. 

In the evening, when the Jew arrived at 
his lodgings, and had eaten his supper of 
fried soles and German sausage, with a 
bunch of white turnip radishes, he emptied 
the whole contents of his bag out on the 
floor, and bent over us from his chair, for 
some minutes, with a face of great satisfac- 
tion. He had collected all this bag-full in one 
day. ' Yes,' said he, taking me up from all 
the rest, ' yes, this is the best part of my 
day's work.' I was beginning to feel pleased 
at this compliment, when the Jew added, 
-This is a beautiful wooden doll, but her gold 
bracelet is the thing for me ! ' So I saw it 
was not I, but my gold bracelet that pleased 
his fancy. 

He took me to a little table ; and there, 
with a pair of pincers, he took off my 
bracelet ; and, in its place, he fastened a 
stupid piece of tin, upon which, with the 
point of a broken fork, he scratched, ' Maria 
Poppet.' I could have cried bitterly at the 
change, but I was able to restrain myself. 



THE CITY. 101 

I felt that I should not remain long with 
the old Jew, because he would soon sell me ; 
The very next day he actually did sell me ; 
and my purchaser was an Italian organ- 
boy. 

This boy had been used to carry a monkey 
about on the top of his organ, who sat there 
in a red jacket and soldiers cap, and made 
faces, while the boy's little sister went round 
to collect halfpence in a tambourine. This 
poor little monkey had caught a very bad 
cold, by being out in the rain one night, 
and had died ; and the Italian boy had come 
to the Jew, to know if he would buy it to 
stuff for a glass case. The old Jew consid- 
ered a long while, and then said he could 
give no money for the poor little pug, but 
he would give him something that would 
be better for him, because it would help 
him to make money. So saying, he offered 
me to the boy, in exchange for the monkey. 
The Italian boy hesitated at first ; he said 
he wanted a little money. But his sister 
exclaiming, ' Oh, do, brother, let us have 



102 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

the doll ! ' he consented ; and fitting on me 
the red jacket, he stuck me upon the top of 
the organ, and off we went into the street, 
to the tune of ' I'd be a butterfly ! ' which 
he immediately began to play. 

We went through many streets, playing 
various tunes by the way, and getting many 
pennies and halfpennies, until we arrived at 
Guildhall, when Brigitta (that was the little 
girl's name) said she wanted to run in and 
show me two very large dolls indeed, called 
Gog and Magog. ' So do,' said her brother 
(whose name was Marco), ' and while you 
go I'll play the tune I think Gog and Magog 
would like best;' and he immediately began 
once more to play ' I'd be a butterfly ! ' 

We ran in and saw the great ugly things. 
Oh, they were such great dolls ! and it was 
such a large room ! Out ran Brigitta again, 
and we went to the Mansion-house and played 
' Sweet home,' — in the middle of which a 
fat gentleman, who had just come out of a 
pastry-cook's, put a slice of plum-cake into 
Brigitta's tambourine. We then went and 



THE CITY. 103 

played ' Cherry ripe ' in front of the Monu- 
ment, but we did not play long, as Brigitta 
got frightened ; it looked so high she was 
afraid it would tumble down and spoil Dolly. 
We next went and played in front of the 
London tavern, in Bishopsgate street ; but 
there happened to be a great 4 public dinner ' 
going on, so one of the waiters told us to 
go away, as there was an alderman just then 
making a ' speech,' and we disturbed him ; 
so we walked slowly away, playing ' They're 
all nodding.' 

We now went to St. Paul's churchyard 
and played the 'Old Hundredth Psalm,' 
and ' God save the Queen, 1 and ' Cherry 
ripe.' I never saw anything before or since 
that looked so great to me as St. Paul's, for 
although there was a most beautiful doll- 
shop within sight, I could not help looking 
all the time at the great building. 

After this, as we had made one shilling and 
sevenpence in the course of the day, we went 
home to Marco's lodgings. He had a little 
room behind the back kitchen of a cobbler's 



104 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

house in the neighborhood of London bridge. 
Brigitta placed me on a straw mattress up 
in one corner, and then took out two plates 
and a mug without a handle from a cup- 
board in the wall, and Marco then laid upon 
the plate several things to eat, which he had 
bought on their way home, among which I 
saw something that looked very much like 
an ounce of sugar candy, besides the piece 
of plum- cake that had been put into Brigit- 
ta s tambourine. They were very merry over 
their supper. Then Marco, who was very 
tired from having carried the organ about 
all day, fell fast asleep, and Brigitta presently 
took out from a little bundle several pieces 
of bright scarlet and green stuff, and, in the 
neatest manner possible, began to make me 
a very pretty dress, just like the one she had 
on herself. I was very glad of this, for I did 
not at all like being dressed like the monkey. 
She was a very pretty little girl of about 
nine years of age, with a dark brown com- 
plexion and red lips, and large black eyes, 
and long, black, glossy, curling hair. 



THE CITY. 105 

I passed several weeks with this merry 
little mamma, who was always laughing, or 
chattering, or playing the tambourine and 
collecting halfpence in it, or dancing me 
about, except when I sat upon the organ in 
the place of the monkey. I saw a great deal 
of London by this means, but more par- 
ticularly of the City, as far as from Teirfple 
Bar to the Thames Tunnel, because Marco 
knew a great many houses where there were 
children who liked to hear the organ, and 
he and his sister generally visited each 
house about once a week. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE LORD MAYOR'S SHOW. 

The day approached for the Lord May- 
or's Show. Marco determined that Brigitta 
should see it ; and my pretty Italian mamma 
determined that I should see it too, so out 
we went early to get a good place, Marco 
leaving the organ at home, up in one corner, 
as he said the Lord Mayor would be sure to 
have plenty of music without his help, and 
they should find the organ very troublesome 
to themselves, and other people too, in a great 
crowd. We arrived in Cheapside about eight 
o'clock. On the way we had turned up a 
little alley, where a man kept an early break- 
fast stall, and had two pints of hot coifee and 
two thick slices of bread and butter ; and 
when these were eaten, Marco bought two 
more, which he wrapped up in a large cab- 



THE LORD MAYOR'S SHOW. 107 

bage-leaf, and put into his pocket. He said 
they were sure to get hungry with waiting 
in the street. 

Well, as I said, we got into Cheapside 
before eight o'clock. It was a foggy morn- 
ing, and wet and muddy under foot. But 
still there were a great many people going 
backwards and forwards, and all looking very 
busy and anxious. We first chose a spot near 
Bow church ; but very soon a number of 
tall people came and stood in front of us, so 
that we could not see through them, nor over 
their heads. Marco said to one of the tallest 
of the men, ' I wish you would be so kind as 
to move a little, sir, we cannot see over your 
head.' ' Oh,' said this unkind man, ' sup- 
pose you find another place.' 4 And so let 
us,' said Brigitta, ' for we can see nothing 
here through these tall bodies. Come, Mar- 
co.' We accordingly walked on. 

We had only gone a few paces when Marco 
said he recollected there had been a fire in 
Cheapside only a few days ago on the oppo- 
site side of the way, and as there could not 



108 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

have been time to build a new house, or even 
pull down the old one, we might perhaps get 
up into the ruins somewhere. He was quite 
right. There stood the black shell of the 
house, with some wooden planks in front of 
all the lower windows. The crowd was now 
fast collecting. We ran across, and pushing 
aside one of the planks, in we got, — scram- 
bled over a great quantity of rubbish, and 
black bricks and beams, and smoke and dirt, 
and broken things, — and with great difficul- 
ty Marco climbed up the remains of a broken 
staircase to see if it could be safely attempted. 
' Now, Brigitta,' said he, when he was up on 
a broad beam running close underneath the 
first-floor windows, ' Now, Brigitta, it's all 
safe, come up.' 

' But how shall I get the poppet up 1 ' said 
Brigitta. 

4 Oh,' said Marco, c make haste, for I see 
more people getting in by the windows, and 
you will lose your place. Throw her up to 
me ! make haste ! ' 

I trembled from head to foot. But before 



THE LORD MAYOR'S SHOW. 109 

I had time to think more about my fears, 
the little girl pitched me up in the air, and 
in the cleverest way possible Marco caught 
me in his two hands. Then up got Brigitta, 
and the first thing she did was to station me 
between two broken bricks at the side of the 
window, so that I could look down from this 
height upon the whole of the Lord Mayor's 
Show as it passed in the street beneath. We 
had an excellent place at the middle window 
of the ruined case of the burnt house. 

We had not been here a minute before a 
crowd of people got in through the planks 
below, several of which were broken clown, 
and in they came rushing, and tried to clam- 
ber up to the windows. However, we three 
kept our good places. 

And now came peppering down a shower of 
rain, and then another shower of rain stronger 
than the first, and then there came another 
shower of rain that lasted an hour ; and then 
there was a thick yellow fog for another hour, 
and then the rain ceased, and the fog began 
to clear away ; and when the fog was gone, 



110 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

suddenly the sun came out, and shone very 
brightly. 

6 Now,' said Marco, ■ let us eat our other 
slices of bread and butter.' This they did 
with great pleasure; the sun shining like 
gold upon the butter all the time. 

They had scarcely done eating when 
' boom ! ' came the sound of a great drum, — 
and all sorts of musical instruments struck 
up, and the boom of the great drum was 
quickly followed by the ' rub-a-dub row-de- 
dow ' of smaller drums, and the ' too-ra-loo ' 
of fifes, and then we saw the show coming 
along the streets. The streets were lined 
with soldiers who made a long alley ; on the 
outsides of the soldiers next the houses the 
crowds were struggling to look over the sol- 
dier's heads ; and along the inside of the 
alley formed by the soldiers, the show came 
pompously along in the middle of the street. 

I have said that I was seated between two 
broken bricks, at one side of the wall, and 
next to me was Brigitta. There were at least 
five people standing behind us at the same 



Ill 



window, looking over our heads, and behind 
Brigitta was a person in a water-proof cape, 
part of which, hanging over Brigitta's left 
shoulder, came just in front of my face. 
Brigitta perceived this, and several times 
pushed the cape back to enable me to see ; 
but as the show came on and got finer and 
finer, and more thick with men all dressed in 
colors, and silks, and ribbons, and gold lace, 
— and the horses in their fine harnesses and 
trappings came nodding and dancing along, 
and the coaches got more golden and shining 
with fat figures in cocked hats sitting inside, 
and very fat gentlemen with red faces in 
splendid waistcoats, and the crowds of cocked 
hats, and multitudes of knees with shining 
buckles increased, — of all this splendor I 
had only time to take one look, and then the 
heavy cape again fell before my eyes, and 
Brigitta was too much engaged herself to 
think any more of removing it. However, I 
did occasionally manage to see, because the 
person in the w r ater-proof cape moved about, 
and often bent himself from side to side 



112 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

to see better, and once when he did so I 
got sight of the two men in armor, — two 
men covered all over, — one in iron and one 
in brass, just as lobsters are covered with 
their shells, only shining in the sun, and 
riding on large black horses. Besides these 
I also saw the principal dolls of this wonder- 
ful show — I mean the Lord Mayor in his 
coach, with the wooden Sword-bearer and 
the gingerbread Mace-bearer — at least, they 
looked like wood and gingerbread ; and, in- 
deed, so did the Lord Mayor himself. The 
Sword-bearer and the Mace-bearer both sat 
back to back at the open windows in a 
thorough draught, and they both appeared 
to have got colds in their noses. We had an 
excellent view of the Lord Mayor in his robe 
of scarlet, with gold and colored stripes over 
it, and wearing a beautiful necklace hanging- 
down upon his breast. He gave a sigh as 
he passed us, and laid his hand upon his fine 
stomach, and then he gave a smile. The 
coach was drawn by eight horses with proud 
necks, all covered with rich aprons, and rib- 



bons, and straps, and tassels, and tinkerums 
and things, and with quantities of colored 
ribbon-bows, and streamers and gold lace, and 
brass nails and buckles. Then the coach — 
oh, what a coach ! It was like a coach made 
of glass set in a very fine, fancy looking-glass 
frame, and stuck on a sort of gilded car all 
covered with paintings and golden carvings 
and sweetmeats, extremely like several coach- 
es I had seen on Twelfth-cakes, only a great 
deal bigger. I wondered very much if it was 
made of sugar. 

We waited till the procession returned ; 
it was a long time, but we were determined 
to wait. When they all came back we saw, 
besides the fine gentlemen, a number of 
beautiful fat ladies in feathers, with diamonds 
and rosy cheeks, the fattest of whom, and the 
most beautiful of course, was the Lady Mayor- 
ess in an apricot satin dress with all sorts of 
embroidery, and lace, and ribbons, and span- 
gles, and precious things, and looking all so 
stiff and expensive behind the glass, but yet 
seeming to be alive, although afraid to move 
10 



114 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

in the least for fear of injuring some part of 
all this dress. I thought it was so kind of 
everybody in the show to take the time and 
trouble to let themselves be dressed for us to 
see them. 

' All of a sudden we heard a great crack, 
and then a loud cry from a number of people 
below, ' The wall is falling ! come down, all 
of you ! ' No one wanted a second warning, 
and all who were up at the windows went 
scrambling down as quick as they could, and 
in the best way they could ; but how it was 
all done I have no notion, as Marco had sud- 
denly seized me, and thrust me, head fore- 
most, into his pocket, where I remained for 
two or three hours, and when next taken 
out T found myself in the little back room, 
where they were going to have some supper 
of macaroni. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE LOST BRACELET. 

The next events of my life were two 
pleasures and one pain. The pain was a 
change of circumstances, and the first pleas- 
ure was the possession of a new wardrobe. 
How could I have a new wardrobe, when 
my mamma was only the little sister of a 
poor Italian organ-boy, and had but one 
dress for herself? It all came about through 
what I considered, at the time, a great mis- 
fortune; it was the change of my present 
mamma for another ; and I was very fond of 
my little Italian mamma, and therefore was 
sorry to be obliged to leave her. 

The day after Lord Mayor's day was cold 
and wet ; but, notwithstanding, we all went 
out with the organ, for Marco said we must 
earn some money to make up for yesterday, 



116 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

which was a day of pleasure ; so we went 
round to several houses where he was ac- 
customed to play. At last we got into Fins- 
bury square, and there began to play before 
a house where a little girl called Lydia 
Thomson lived. Her papa was a partner in 
the house of Barclay and Perkins, the great 
brewers, and she used to come out on the 
balcony when Marco played, and always 
threw him a penny, and sometimes danced 
up and down the balcony to his music. 
"Well, while we were playing on this cold wet 
day, it began to snow, and little Lydia, who 
was dancing on the balcony, was obliged to 
run into the warm drawing-room for fear she 
should catch cold; and when she looked out, 
she thought Brigitta seemed so wet and cold 
in the snow, that she almost began to cry, 
and asked her mamma to let us all come in. 
Her mamma gave us leave, so down she ran 
and brought us all in, and placed us by a 
warm parlor fire. Then away she ran to her 
mamma again, and presently came back danc- 
ing and skipping about before a servant, who 



THE LOST BRACELET. 117 

carried a tray with two plates full of roast 
mutton and potatoes from the servants' 
dinner, and she told Marco and Brigitta to 
begin to eat, and they laughed and looked 
so pleased, and ate away, and began to look 
so much warmer and more comfortable. 
Then away she ran again, and brought 
down a box full of sweetmeats and sugar- 
plums, and put it down before Brigitta, 
and said, ' That is for you,' and Brigitta 
kissed her hand to her so prettily, and said, 
' Thank you, dear little lady.' Then Marco 
asked if he might play to her, and she said, 
4 Oh yes ; ' so he played all his tunes, and she 
danced up and down the passage, and in 
and out of the room. 

When all the tunes were done, Marco 
said, ' Now we must go ; ' so they bid good 
bye, and the servant opened the door, and 
the wind blew in very cold. So the little 
girl said, « Shut the door again, and wait a 
minute, 1 and ran away again to her mamma ; 
and after about five minutes, down she came, 
bringing a warm woollen shawl for Brigitta, 



118 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

and an old cape of her papa's for Marco, 
and she said, ' My mamma gives yon these/ 
Oh, they were so much obliged to her. They 
thought her such a dear, kind little girl ; and 
Brigitta 1 s large black eyes filled with tears 
while she thanked her, but little Lydia only 
danced and jumped about. 

Then Brigitta put on the shawl, and took 
me up, and I thought she was going to carry 
me away with her, but she said, ' Dear, kind 
little lady, take this doll from me ; it is such 
a great pleasure to me to have something to 
give you.' Lydia said, ' But you like to 
have the doll.' ' No, no ! ' answered Brigitta, 
6 take it, dear little lady ! ' So she and Marco 
hurried away, and left me with Lydia Thom- 
son. 

I was at first very sorry to be parted from 
my merry Italian mamma; but I soon be- 
came very fond of this kind little Lydia. 
She used to play with me a great deal, and 
she took oft that ugly tin bracelet from my 
arm, but not till she had read my name — 
' Maria Poppet.' She dressed me very nicely, 



THE LOST BRACELET. 119 

too, so that I had, as I have said, a new 
wardrobe ; and a very few days after I was 
settled in this new home, I had the second 
pleasure I have mentioned. It happened in 
this manner. 

One very cloudy morning, a voice crying 
' Clo' ! clo' ! ' came down Finsbury square, 
and stopped in front of our house. Again 
the voice said, ' Clo 1 ! ' and then, after stop- 
ping a little, said very quickly, ' Clo' ! clo' ! ' 
I recollected whose voice that was in a 
moment, and it made me tremble. It was 
the old Jew who had bought me of Punch's 
showman. 

Lydia had left me sitting at the nursery 
window, with my nose and cheek resting 
against the glass ; I could therefore look 
out, and I now saw him walk up to the 
area, and poke his head through the iron 
rails, looking down, so that I only saw his 
round shoulders and his rusty black bag. 
Now I heard the area door open, as if one 
of the maids was coming out, and instantly 
the Jew said, ' My dear, I want to speak 



120 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

something ! ' ' Speak then,' said the merry 
voice of my mamma's nursery maid. 

' Come up the area steps, my dear,' said 
the Jew ; ' it's a cold wind, and I'm rather 
hoarse to day; and besides, my dear, I've 
something of great consequence to speak.' 

The nursery maid ran up, saying, ' Well, 
be quick then.' 

6 Yes, my dear,' said the Jew, and then, 
lowering his voice, he said, ' You've got a 
wooden doll in this house, my dear.' I 
trembled more than ever at this ; I thought 
he had come for me. 

6 Well,' said the nursery maid, ' and what 
of that ] — is that all you've got to say, with 
your whispering and winking, and screwing 
your face 1 ' 

' Not all, my dear,' said the Jew. ' Your 
doll is a doll of some rank and consequence, 
and her family name is Poppet, and her 
other name is Maria.' 

' Well, lauk now ! ' said the maid, ' how 
did you guess that 1 ' 

' Guess it, my dear,' said the Jew, ' I knew 



THE LOST BRACELET. 121 

it long ago. She used to have a bracelet 
upon her arm, with the name engraved upon 
it.' 

'Yes, so she had, so she had,' said the 
maid ; ; a tin one it was.' 

The Jew laughed, and said, ' A gold one, 
my dear. It was tin when you had her, I 
dare say ; but formerly, in the days of her 
greatness, my dear, she had one made of 
pure gold, and I can tell you what ' — here 
he again lowered his voice — ' I know where 
the gold one is. I can find it. Yes, my 
dear, I can, and I may as w r ell just let you 
have a peep at it.' Here the Jew drew 
something in a paper out of his pocket, and 
held it up. 

6 Oh my ! ' said the nursery maid, ' well, if 
ever ! There's Maria Poppet engraved upon 
it — and you've brought it back to young 
missis. Oh, how pleased she will be ! ' 

' Yes, my dear,' said the Jew, putting it 
back into his pocket. ' You can tell them 
what you've seen, and say that I have no 
objection to sell it, to oblige them — and it's 



122 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

pure gold, you know, my dear, and I'll come 
again to-morrow morning. Clo' ! clo' ! clo 1 ! ' 
and away he went, leaving the poor nursery 
maid calling out after him in vain. 

Well, this was the talk of the whole house. 
Everybody was so much interested about it. 
Next morning the Jew came, and asked to 
see Mrs. Thomson. He was shown into the 
passage, and then he produced the gold brace- 
let, which fitted my wrist exactly, and every- 
body admired it very much, particularly 
Lyclia, who kissed it several times. 

' You will sell it, of course % ' said Mrs. 
Thomson. 

After long hesitation and consideration, 
the Jew named his price. Mrs. Thomson 
then made him an offer of some money for 
it, but the Jew said he could melt it, and 
make more by it than that. 

At the sound of ' melting ' it, Lydia began 
to cry bitterly, so we were all sent away into 
the nursery, and told to wait till Mrs. Thom- 
son came to us. How it was settled I do 
not know, but after waiting about half an 



THE LOST BRACELET. 123 

hour, we heard the sound of ' Clo ' ! clo ' ! ' 
and Mrs. Thomson came up stairs, bringing 
the bracelet in her hand, and that very day 
it was fastened on my wrist, as at first. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE NEW GRAND CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME. 

Lydia Thomson had long been promised 
to be taken to the next Christmas Panto- 
mime, and the happy day for this was now 
arrived. All the morning long, Lydia was 
so restless, she was unable to remain quiet 
for two minutes together. If she sat down 
to work, she was often obliged to get up and 
dance, and then to run and look out at the 
window, — then to run down stairs singing, 

— then to hop up again upon one leg, — 
then to run and look at the play-bill, and 
read it all through aloud, — then to try and 
read it topsy-turvy, and ask me to help her, 

— then to dance me up in the air, — then to 
run and roll over and over with me on the 
sofa, crying out, ' Oh, Maria ! oh, Maria ! 
w T e're going to see the New Grand Christmas 
Pantomime ! ' 



THE NEW GRAND CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME. 125 

At last the evening came. We were 
dressed in good time. My mamma, Lydia, 
wore a white frock and bine sash, and looked 
very nice ; but she made me look beau- 
tiful, for she said I should be dressed in a 
way to suit a beautiful pantomime ; so she 
made me a frock of thin white muslin, and 
trimmed it with some little pink roses that 
her mamma gave her, and put a wreath of 
little pink roses round my hair. The car- 
riage came to the door, and we drove off to 
Drury-lane Theatre. There were Lydias 
papa and mamma, and her two cousins, and 
out they all jumped, ran past the crowd at 
the door, and up the stairs, till we reached 
a private box, which was exactly over one 
side of the stage, upon which we looked 
down with great expectation. I thought we 
should have seen better if we had been in a 
box in the middle of the theatre, but still 
this was very nice. We did nothing but 
clap our hands and look at the dark curtain. 
The play was over. We had not been al- 
lowed to come till the play was over, because 



126 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

Lydias papa said he knew we should be 
tired if we did. 

The house was very full of people, and I 
began to look round me, and up and down 
in all directions. But who shall describe my 
pleasure and surprise when, looking up into 
the two-shilling gallery, w T ho should I see 
sitting in the very front row but the celebra- 
ted Mr. Sprat ! On one side of him was his 
wife, who appeared to be eating periwinkles ; 
on the other side sat his two sons and daugh- 
ter ; so that they every one of them had a 
front seat. Looking down into the pit, who 
should I next see but the master of the doll- 
shop, who had fancied himself Napoleon in a 
brown paper cocked hat, with his daughter 
and little Emmy at his side ; but what gave 
me far greater pleasure was to see very near 
them, though a little in front, Ellen Plummy 
and her brother Thomas. Oh, my dear little 
Ellen Plummy, how I wished you were up 
here with us ! She sat on the right-hand side 
of Thomas, and on his left was Nanny Bell. 
I now looked again round the house, and in 



THE NEW GRAND CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME. 127 

a private box nearly opposite to ours, but 
larger and lower down, I saw a pretty, deli- 
cate little girl, most elegantly dressed, whom 
I at once recognized as my little lady mam- 
ma, Flora. I was so glad to be unable to 
see the least sign of any scars from the fire. 
She was in the middle of this large box, 
leaning over. At one side, almost hidden 
behind a red curtain and her large silk cloak, 
sat Lady Flowerdale. Somehow I immedi- 
ately thought of Mary Hope, to whom I had 
been taken by the dog Nep. I did not see 
her, it is true ; but while I was thinking of 
her, and looking down into the pit, I saw- 
Mr. Johnson, the portrait painter, peeling an 
orange. Looking at Mr. Johnson, with grati- 
tude for all he had done for me after my 
burning, it naturally made me think of how 
much more gratitude I owed to the celebra- 
ted Mr. Sprat, who had made me, and I im- 
mediately looked up again towards the gal- 
lery where he sat. But happening at first to 
look too high, I caught sight, in the one- 
shilling gallery, of my little Italian mamma, 



128 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

Brigitta, and her brother Marco. They were 
laughing, talking, and cracking nuts. 

Now we began to long for the Pantomime 
to begin. Presently we heard all manner of 
sounds going on behind the curtain — all 
manner of voices talking and calling, and 
buzzing and humming The moving of 
boards, and hammering, and the placing of 
planks and beams, and pushing and pulling 
about of heavy things ; and now and then 
through one side of the curtain we caught a 
glimpse of something so bright that went 
by, like tall flags on painted poles, and tops 
of spears, and parts of mantles of people's 
dresses ; and once, underneath the bottom 
of the dark green curtain, we saw run along 
a little pair of bright silver feet. The sound 
of drums and trumpets was also heard to 
begin in a disorderly manner, and then stop 
suddenly, and end in a murmur of many 
voices, and a hurrying to and fro of many 
feet. 

And now the band of musicians that 
played in the long orchestra beneath us, 



THE NEW GRAND CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME. 129 

came thronging in, and seized upon all sorts 
of very great and very small instruments, and 
began blowing and twanging, and trying up 
and down, and backwards and forwards, 
and squeaking high and flourishing about, 
and rumbling and tumbling, and working 
very hard to get into order. Then they were 
quite silent. Then top ! top ! went the fid- 
dlestick of the leader of the orchestra, who 
sat upon his high stool — there was more 
silence than ever — and suddenly off they 
all went, all the instruments at once, and 
played away in a most wonderful manner 
— slow music, and quick music, and grand 
marches, and all sorts of dances, that made 
everybody's heart jump within and try to do 
whatever the music was doing. 

The band ceased playing, and very slowly 
indeed the dark curtain began to be drawn 
up. As it went creeping up towards the 
high roof, we gradually saw a great field in 
winter, all white with snow, and the snow 
coming down. As the dark curtain went up 
and the snow came down, it seemed that the 



130 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

box we were in was sinking downwards also. 
However, it did not. 

The scene we looked upon was a very 
large field of snow, with shrubs in the front 
all covered with snow, and large trees at 
the side all covered with snow, and great 
woods at the back. The snow presently 
ceased to fall, and we saw ranges of hills 
behind the woods quite white like the rest. 
All the time the music continued to play 
something that was so slow, and cold, and 
soft, and melodious, and grand. 

The music was changed to an ugly, 
broken, -hobbling, harsh sound, and at the 
farthest end of the field we saw a strong- 
made, little old man, in a dark, blue cloak, 
appear, and come down towards the white 
shrubs in front, just under us. His hat was 
the shape of an extinguisher, but with a 
broad brim. As he approached, we saw that 
he had a large blue nose, and very large un- 
even teeth, and blue goggle eyes ! Ugh ! 
how we all shivered, except Lydia's papa 
and mamma, who laughed and told us not 



THE NEW GRAND CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME. 131 

to be frightened. The music stopped, and 
this ugly, strong Dwarf then repeated these 
words : — 

' The frosty air shall take them, 
And the wintry wind shall shake them, 
And frozen boughs shall rake them, 
While rocks and ruins break them, — 
And years shall always snip them, 
While hours for ever trip them, 
And constant trouble dip them, 
Until Time come and clip them ; 
All this shall be done to destroy all their dances, 
And drive from the world its delightful romances.* 

As the ugly, thick-limbed little Dwarf said 
this, he stamped one foot, — a loud wind 
was heard, and in a moment he went 
straight down through the earth, and was 
quite gone ! At the same moment we heard 
a sweet voice singing in the air, which 
said — 

' He thinks he makes what mortals see : 
It seems so — but it shall not be.' 

Before we had time to recover ourselves, we 
saw that the whole scene of frost and snow 
was changing into a bright summer. The 
green leaves came out upon the trees — the 



132 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

sun-beams shot across the sky, and played 
upon the distant woods and hills — a warm, 
glowing color came all over the scene — 
and while the music played the prettiest 
dance, we saw the spire of a village church 
slowly rise up among the trees at the back, 
and a troop of villagers, with wreaths and 
garlands of flowers, all came dancing in, 
and round and round. 

And now came in a very pretty little vil- 
lage girl with her lover ; and the dancers all 
surrounded them with their garlands, and 
they were all going to be very happy, when 
a cross-looking old man in an earth-colored 
flannel gown, who was the father of the 
pretty little village girl, hobbled in and 
separated them, — and would not allow it, 
— and made signs that the young man was 
not rich enough to have his daughter. He 
made signs that the young man had no 
fields, and orchards, and dogs, and horses, 
and houses, and money, and these were the 
things that he thought most to be loved, and 
therefore that they made the best lover. So 



THE NEW GRAND CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME. 133 

the young man having none of these, was 
driven away by the old father and two of his 
men with pitchforks. When, just as they 
were driving him out, a noise was heard as 
if a great many penny trumpets were blown. 
All the villagers made signs of seeing some- 
thing wonderful coming. Then came the 
sound of one single penny trumpet, and im- 
mediately afterwards there entered, with a 
very consequential strut, a figure with a 
large round head and red cheeks, scarcely 
any body, and very thin grass-green legs, 
and carrying in both hands an immense brass 
trumpet, which, however, had only the sound 
of a very small penny one. 

' I come,' said he, ' to herald the advance 
of the King of Bubble Island, — and I am 
his chief trumpeter.' Upon which he lifted 
up his immense brass trumpet, which said, 
6 Twee, te-twee, tivee ! ' 

Now came in twenty more trumpeters 
like the first, all with large trumpets, blow- 
1 Twee ! tivee ! tivee ! ' After them came 
marching in an army, all the soldiers having 



134 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

helmets made of great white turnips, with 
the green leaves nodding about for feathers, 
and carrying shields of black glass, in the 
middle of each of which w T as seen a bowl 
of white soap-suds and a pipe. These were 
followed by the King's Prime Minister and 
the other Wise Men of his court, all of them 
blowing bubbles, which rose into the air and 
looked most beautiful ; and as fast as they 
burst, the Wise Men blew T more, so that 
there were always a good many floating in 
the air. Each w r as attended by two valiant 
knights in glass armor of bottle-green, the 
one on the right bearing a bowl of soap- 
suds, and the one on the left carrying a 
supply of soap and fresh pipes. After these 
came dancing a great many golden Coins of 
the Realm, all with the same face, and all 
of them with thin spider's legs, and their 
hands in their pockets. 

And now came the King himself! He 
had a large round head of glass, colored 
with green and pink, and his face was 
colored with green and pink, and he wore a. 



THE NEW GRAND .CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME. 135 

golden crown, with spikes like a dog's collar, 
which sponted np a great quantity of froth in 
the shape of feathers. His body was quite 
round, like his head, only very much larger. 
His hair was dark purple. He had a short 
mantle edged with fur like froth, and his 
legs were the color of a blue-bottle fly spot- 
ted with gold. His walk and air were like 
all the pride of the earth put into one 
chemist's bottle ! An immense blast of 
farthing trumpets announced his actual 
presence ! 

' Poor people ! ' exclaimed he, ' villagers 
and people, and things ! — ye have dared to 
harbor among you no less a gentleman than 
the Prince my son, the heir of all these 
Bubbles, who has caused us all these 
troubles, — but what my grief doubles, let 
me say, is the fact that he has run away, 

and our Royal Court doth mock bless 

my soul ! what young man is that in the 
brown frock \ ' 

The moment he said this, the poor lover, 
who was just being driven out by the three 



136 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

pitchforks, began to run about and try to 
hide himself. The Prime Minister and the 
Wise Men instantly drew from their sides 
each a telescope, which they drew out to its 
full length, and began to point in all direc- 
tions to examine the young man, crying out, 
4 We think it is — we think it is — we think 
it is the Prince ! ' The Prime Minister now 
jumped pick-a-back upon the back of the 
King's Physician, and pointed the telescope 
towards the feet of the young peasant, cry- 
ing out, ' Now I shall have him ! ' When 
the Physician, on whose back he was, heard 
this, he began to prance very much. The 
Prime Minister, whose observations through 
the telescope were much disturbed by this 
prancing, then jumped down and lay flat 
upon his stomach, pointing his glass to- 
wards the young man's face, and then 
called out, ' I've got him. It is the Prince ! ' 
The moment the King heard his Prime 
Minister declare it to be actually his dear 
long-lost son, he rushed as if mad with pa- 
ternal feelings, towards the young man, and 



THE NEW GRAND CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME. 137 

being unable to stop himself in time, he 
and the Prince together knocked down a 
cottage ! It fell flat down, and they rolled 
amidst the ruins ! The village girls extri- 
cated the Prince by the shoulders, and the 
Wise Men pulled out the King by the legs, 
drawing him along a good way on the 
ground, to be sure that he was extricated. 
Then the King immediately remembered 
how very angry he had been with his son 
for running away, and was going to knock 
him down with his golden sceptre, when the 
father of the pretty little village girl, that 
the Prince was in love with, ran up and 
received the blow instead, which knocked 
him down upon his knees ; but instead of 
getting up, he declared it was the greatest 
honor of his life to have been knocked 
down by the father of his daughter's lover, 
whom he now discovered to be such a great 
person, and to have so many fields, and bags 
of gold, and horses, and people, and soap- 
bubbles. 

6 Base clodpole ! ' said his Majesty, ' is the 

12 



138 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

Prince my son in love with your little hedge- 
flower of a daughter 1 ' 

Before he could say another word, the 
Prince himself ran up to the little peasant 
girl with open arms, crying out — ' Yes, 
King of Bubbles, it is true.' 

' Then,' said the King, — ' Blow me ! ' 
At the sound of these words, the most 
terrible that could be heard in the whole 
kingdom of Bubble Island, all the army 
uttered a howl, and the Prime Minister and 
other Wise Men rushed to their bowls of 
soap-suds, and filling the air with bubbles to 
try if their pipes were in the highest degree 
of perfection, they then advanced towards 
the King and applied their pipes to different 
parts of his body to blow him as he ordered. 
But suddenly was heard a great sound of 
wind and rain, and the sky got dark, and it 
began to snow; and while they were all 
staring at the fast-falling snow, the ugly, 
strong-limbed Dwarf, with the blue nose 
and goggle eyes, came walking down among 
them and said — 



THE NEW GRAND CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME. 139 

' I will befriend thee, King of Bubbles, 
And all thy foes I'll fill with troubles : 
Come frost and snow ! and cover all we see, 
And change the face of life's reality ! ' 

At these words there began to descend a 
number of dark, heavy clouds, at the same 
time that a mist rose up from the earth, till 
the clouds and the mist met, and out of the 
middle came a great troop of the Spirits of 
the Frost and Snow, all glistening in white 
snow and icicles, with branches covered with 
snow and icicles in their hands, and they all 
sang this chorus : — 

' We will the face of Nature change, 
And make its pleasant places strange, 
Covering all life with icy wing, 
As thou may'st order, Bubble King.' 

w Very good,' said the King. ' I'm much 
obliged to you, Mr. Blue-nosed Dwarf, and 
to all you ladies and gentlemen with frosty 
countenances. Now then, at once, I will 
thank you to cover the village, where all 
these people live, with snow ; to turn that 
peasant girl, whom my son is so mad and 
stupid as to be in love with, into a large 



140 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

icicle, and make the Prince a man of snow 
looking at her. 

The Spirits of the Frost instantly seized 
upon the Prince and the little peasant girl, 
when suddenly a rosy light appeared in the 
middle of the dark clouds, which got bright- 
er and brighter, and sent out rays of an 
orange color, and then rays also of bright 
purple. Then the orange began to get 
golden, and the purple to turn to bright 
violet ; and then in the middle of all there 
opened out a brilliant light, and we saw a 
wheel of golden fire slowly turning round, 
and in the centre of it stood a little child, 
who seemed to be dressed in bright silver 
gossamer, with beautiful auburn hair, and a 
silver wand in her hand, and a bright violet 
star upon her forehead ; and the little voice 
called out, — 

' Spirits of the Frost ! I charge ye sing again 
More truly, — mixing pleasure with the pain.' 

Then the Spirits of the Frost sang these 
words, — 

* We will the face of Nature change, 
And make the truest things look strange ; 



THE NEW GRAND CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME. 141 

But Nature's heart will ever be 

Deep beyond Fate's tyranny, 

And from King Bubble's surface free.' 

Then said the Dwarf, — 

' But change is mine, and strife and war, — ' 

Then replied the Child, — 

' Take them — but work within my law.' 

The clouds now closed in front of the 
bright Child-spirit to the sound of soft music, 
till each cloud became of a dull leaden color 
as before. Presently came a loud sound of 
instruments from behind the clouds, and a 
large silver arrow was seen to fly straight 
towards the young Prince. It struck him, 
and he instantly turned into Harlequin, in a 
dress of bright gold and silver and red and 
blue, and a black mask ! Again the sound 
of a clang of instruments was heard behind 
the clouds, and out dropped a bag of money 
upon the head of the village girl's father, 
which knocked him down, and when he got 
up he was poor old Pantaloon, with a goat's 
beard, and a pig-tail, and a short red mantle, 



142 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

and a stick. Again a clang of instruments 
was heard, and a great heavy stone was seen 
to fiy out of the cloud straight at the glass 
head of his Majesty, the King of Bubble 
Island, which it struck,' — and, with a sound 
like the breaking of six dozen of soda-water 
bottles, his head flew into a million of 
pieces, and up in its place rose the head of 
the Clown, with his mouth wide open ! — at 
the same time all the Royal robes of the 
King flew up into the air, where they were 
blown about in all directions, till they were 
at last blown quite away, and there was the 
Clown, in his ridiculous red and white patch- 
work dress ! Once more was heard the 
clang of instruments behind the clouds, and 
out of the clouds flew a beautiful bouquet of 
flowers, which fell upon the head of the little 
peasant girl, who instantly turned into the 
prettiest Columbine that ever was seen in all 
the world. She was like the brightest silver- 
footed fairy, and yet at the same time she 
was such a little dear sweetheart. 

But what do you think happened at this 



THE NEW GRAND CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME. 143 

moment? Nobody would ever guess. It 
was this. My mamma Lydia was in such 
excessive delight that she sank back with 
her arms thrown up, and totally forgetting 
me, I slipped over the edge of the box and 
fell upon the stage, close to the little silver 
feet of Columbine. My mamma did not 
know I had fallen. Columbine had no idea 
where I came from; so the next time she 
passed the spot where I lay, she caught me 
up and ran with me to her room behind the 
scenes. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

CONCLUSION. 

The moment Columbine entered her room 
she held me up to a good-natured old lady, 
who was dressing herself like a scaly green 
dragon for the last scene, and cried out, 
c Here's a pretty doll I have just found on 
the stage ! ' 

1 Where did you get it ? ' said the good- 
natured old lady, going to a looking-glass to 
fit on the dragon's head. 

4 Oh, grandmother,' said Columbine, 'I've 
no time to tell you now, as I have to dance 
a hornpipe in the next scene. Take care of 
her.' Saying which, away ran the pretty 
Columbine. 

As soon as the old lady had tied the 
strings of the dragon's head under her chin, 
so that her face could look through the large 



CONCLUSION. 145 

red throat and open mouth of the dragon, 
she held her head on one side before the 
glass and said, ' There ! I think that does 
very nicely.' She then folded me up in a 
handkerchief, and placed me with their bon- 
nets and shawls. 

Here I lay hearing all sorts of noises of 
trumpets and drums, and singing and danc- 
ing, and tumbling about, and calling out, 
and laughing, and fireworks, and the great 
rolling of many wheels, and loud sounds of 
distant applause from the audience. When 
all was over, I was taken home by the 
Columbine and her grandmother. It was 
a wet night, and they walked through the 
rain in shawls and clogs, and holding up a 
great umbrella with three slits in the top. 
They lived in the back parlor of a small 
green-grocer's, near Covent Garden. The 
bed and the rest of the furniture were very 
humble, the hangings of the bed being of 
gray draft-board pattern, and the coverlid 
of the bed of patchwork ; but all looking 
as clean as it was poor. 

13 



146 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

I now saw that the pleasant old grand- 
mother, who had acted the green dragon, 
was dressed all in brown, even with a brown 
bonnet and brown stockings ; the umbrella 
was brown too. Columbine was dressed in a 
high frock of gray checked gingham, but 
very neatly made, and she wore a small straw 
cottage bonnet. Under one arm, however, 
she had a bundle from which shining things 
peeped out, and she took a pair of silver 
slippers out of her pocket, folded them up 
in a bit of newspaper, and placed them in a 
little band-box, into which I peeped and 
saw it was full of precious things. Then 
down they sat to a supper of boiled eggs, 
followed by bread and cheese and porter, 
and endive and beet-root, and then they 
laughed and talked about the pantomime, 
and looked at me and examined my gold 
bracelet ; and then went to bed. 

I was placed away very carefully the next 
morning, as the pretty little Columbine had 
too much to do to attend to me. I was there- 
fore, during all the time of the pantomime, 



CONCLUSION. 147 

left quite alone. I, however, employed my 
time by thinking very much over my past 
life, and going over everything in my own 
mind, from the clay of my birth in the room 
of the celebrated Mr. Sprat, down to the 
present time. 

When the Christmas pantomime was over 
in London, the little Columbine and her 
grandmother went into the country, to act 
at a small theatre there, and they took me 
with them. After the performances had 
gone on for three weeks, Columbine had a 
benefit night. The first piece was the tra- 
gedy of ' Douglas,' and, as no green dragon 
was wanted in it, the grandmother acted 
Lady Randolph. The little Columbine acted 
Norval, with his bow and quiver ; she had 
taken the part, I suppose, on account of its 
resemblance to Cupid. 

Near the town in which the theatre was, 
there stood a large country mansion, called 
Ashbourn Hall, and the lady of this mansion 
was very kind, and took so many tickets for 
Columbine's benefit, that her party filled all 
the three front boxes. 



148 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

The next morning the pretty little Colum- 
bine took me out of the drawer in which I 
was lying in the dark, and feeling very 
dull. I saw that she looked smiling and 
happy, and was nicely dressed in a neatly 
made blue frock with white sprigs on it, 
and a new bonnet. ' Come with me, Maria 
Poppet,' said she, ' and we shall see if we 
cannot give them a little pleasure in return 
for all their kindness ; ' — so she wrapped me 
up in silver paper, all but my head. I was 
still dressed in my pretty muslin frock with 
pink roses. Away she walked, with me in 
her hand, to Ashbourn Hall. 

First we came up to the high iron gates, 
and inside I could see a very smooth green 
lawn, with fine spreading trees about it, and 
broad gravel walks, and great round ever- 
greens, and numbers of gay flowers, and a 
round fish-pond with a fountain in the mid- 
dle, and beautiful water lilies growing in it. 
Columbine rang the bell, and a good-natured 
looking, fat old man-servant opened the 
gate, and smiled when he saw her, as if he 



CONCLUSION. 149 

remembered her. She said she wished to 
see Mrs. Ashbourn, and he asked her to 
walk in. We went up the gravel walk, and 
there was a flight of very white stone steps 
up to the door, with large flower-pots on 
them ; and when we got in there was a 
square lobby with a billiard table, and large 
pictures on the walls ; and then the servant 
threw open a door and showed us into the 
drawing-room. Oh, it was such a beautiful 
room ! There was a large bright sparkling 
fire, and a large bay window opposite, with 
a most lovely view out of it, and flower- 
stands full of geraniums and other flowers 
in it, and bright crimson curtains, and a 
bright carpet, and numbers of sofas and 
arm-chairs, and ottomans, and tables with 
crimson cloths on them, with large china jars 
of flowers, and Christmas annuals, and dolls' 
books, and scent bottles, and all manner of 
pretty things ; and book-cases, and a piano, 
and harp, and guitar, and there was such a 
sweet scent in the room; and there was a 
German piping bulfinch, who was singing 



150 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

a sweet waltz, and a large white dog lying 
asleep on the rug, who, when we came in, 
raised his head. But what I liked best of 
all, was the sight of a pretty, gentle-looking 
little girl, about seven years old, who sat on 
a sofa, reading to a handsome, kind-looking 
lady. 

The lady, who was Mrs. Ashbourn, rose 
up and received the little Columbine very 
kindly, and the little girl came forward and 
smiled, and held out her hand to her, and 
they made her sit down by them. Then 
little Columbine said in the prettiest manner, 
' I am come, ma'am, to thank you for your 
kindness to me, and to ask you to allow this 
young lady to accept of a doll from me.' 

Mrs. Ashbourn thanked her, and said her 
little girl would be delighted to have such a 
pretty doll ; and so I was placed in the soft 
little hands of my present dear mamma, 
Lucy Ashbourn ; and then, after a few 
minutes' more talking, in which a great 
many nattering things were said of me, 
pretty little Columbine took leave, and left 
me in the house where I now am. 



CONCLUSION. 151 

Here I feel that I am settled for life. 
Only yesterday, my mamma, as she was sit- 
ting on her papa's knee, told him that when 
she grew too old to play with me, she would 
give me to her little sister. She takes the 
greatest care of me. Everything is made for 
me just like hers. I have morning dresses, 
afternoon dresses, and night-clothes, and a 
little chest of drawers to keep my things 
in. I have a little hed, with white curtains 
arid nice blankets and sheets, in which my 
mamma lays me every night, after undressing 
me and putting on my nightgown and night- 
cap ; and in the morning she makes believe 
to wash me all over, and brushes my hair, 
and dresses me. When I go out I have a 
bonnet and cloak put on, and I am always 
dressed for dinner, and have my hair done. 
I have also had the happiness to become 
acquainted with another doll, who lives in a 
country-house near ours. At different times, 
when we have been sitting in the garden 
while our mammas played about, she has 
told me the history of her life, and I hope at 



152 MEMOIRS OF A LONDON DOLL. 

a future time that these 'Memoirs of a 
Country Doll' will be made public, as mine 
have been. 

I now take an aifectionate leave of my 
readers, who may perhaps hear of me again, 
when the Country Doll relates her history. 



THE END. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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